South Korea to keep Fukushima seafood ban despite thaw with Japan
President Yoon Seok-yeol’s government says “health and safety” is a top priority despite improved ties between Seoul and Tokyo.
South Korea has ruled out lifting a ban on Japanese seafood imports from the Fukushima nuclear power plant area, despite warming relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
Seafood imports from near the tsunami-hit factory will “never enter” South Korea due to health concerns related to leaked radiation, the government of President Yoon Seok-yeol said Thursday.
“With regard to imports of Japanese seafood products, the government’s position remains unchanged that the health and safety of the people is the highest priority,” the presidential office said in a statement, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
South Korea has banned Japanese seafood imports from eight prefectures, including Fukushima, since 2013 over fears of radiation contamination from the plant’s collapse following an earthquake and tsunami.
A historic summit between Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida earlier this month, at which the two leaders agreed to put aside their country’s troubled history to focus on common security concerns, had sparked speculation that the ban could be eased, if reported the Japanese media. the issue was one of the topics discussed.
Seoul and Tokyo, both close allies of the United States, have had troubled relations for decades due to unresolved issues arising from the Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula in 1910-1945.
In 2019, the World Trade Organization ruled in favor of South Korea’s seafood ban, reversing an earlier decision that found the restrictions unjustified years after the disaster.
A 2016 study by researchers at several Japanese universities found that most Japanese seafood was safe to eat and the risk of contamination was “very low.”
The US Food and Drug Administration lifted the last remaining restrictions on Japanese food imports in 2021, following a similar move by the European Union.
Taiwan lifted restrictions on Japanese food imports from the region last year.
Apart from South Korea, China and Hong Kong continue to block food imports from the region, including all dairy products and fruits and vegetables.