S Koreans worry about Fukushima water; more disapprove of Yoon: poll

So easily brainwashed by opportunist, Japan-hating politicians. The SK opposition will continue to exploit this and we will see the end of Yoon - the best President in SK history.

If only they'd follow the science. It would confirm : the release of water - and the seafood - is safe.

They should more concerned about N Korea! And global warming! If they want to be concerned about anything

Yoon's disapproval ratings rose to 59%, up two percentage points from a week ago, to a 16-week high.

His time in Korean politics just in the matter of time before Korean people decide his faith. It's costly to be friendly with Japanese leader, it really cost his career.

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/1194220556/camp-david-biden-japan-korea

Don't people red and study anymore?

@RoySophveason

Maybe if you know a few Koreans then it would be possible for you to understand their viewpoint.

Also,time spent there might help too

Failing that open a textbook?

You might think that what you say is perfectly logical but to a certain Korean you might as well be speaking Greek

South Koreans should be far more worried about the discharge from their own Kori nuclear plant.

"“For comparison, in South Korea the Kori plant discharged 91 TBq in 2019, more than four times the planned Fukushima discharge."

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comment-on-release-of-waste-water-from-fukushima-into-the-sea-expected-later-this-year/

Surely reading and science is taught in South Korean schools, somewhere in between the anti-JPN education.

I don't really blame them for being alarmed about the Fukushima water discharge, especially when a foreign government tells you whether it's safe or not.

But I don't think they should abandon support for Yook since he's doing a great job bringing Japan and S. Korea back together, which is vital and so beneficial for these two countries.

Meh. They just found a reason to hate Japan. That's all. They couldn't care any less about the ocean.

China is the actual culprit spreading misinfo.

The South Koreans are not that dumb not to be afraid of the Fuku Radiation dumping.

Anyone with a basic education in science should be able to understand that the Fukushima wastewater being discharged into the sea is harmless. Bananas have higher natural radiation levels. You get a higher dose of radiation while you sleep at night. The water you drink daily, whether filtered, bottled, or straight from the tap probably has higher radiation levels. Can you name the radioactive substance that is in the Fukushima wastewater? What is the chemical formula of the substance? And what is it about the substance that makes it radioactive? If you don't know those answers you should not be making judgements about safety.

SpeedToday  06:29 pm JST

I don't really blame them for being alarmed about the Fukushima water discharge, especially when a foreign government tells you whether it's safe or not.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is not a foreign government. The Fukushima discharge has been planned under guidance and monitoring (which is going on now) by the IAEA.

The Statute of the IAEA was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was held at the Headquarters of the United Nations. It came into force on 29 July 1957.

In that same year, 1957, South Korea joined as a member.

As others have noticed, these SK protesters all have the same protest cards. Clearly a central office had them printed in bulk and handed them out.

"“For comparison, in South Korea the Kori plant discharged 91 TBq in 2019, more than four times the planned Fukushima discharge."

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comment-on-release-of-waste-water-from-fukushima-into-the-sea-expected-later-this-year/

Can Japan Today please run this article for a similar poll among Japanese? Is the constant focus on South Korea on this issue relevant or just race-baiting? The comments seem to indicate the latter, so editors, please change focus.

Who cares about the water too much bickering. Stay on topic.

The samples of the water has been tested by about 195 organizations from 90 countries, none of them detected any additional radionuclides (beyond what's reported), and they will continue to monitor the release. Why do you think when it comes to Japan, we get "a free pass" dumping the ocean ? When CCP regularly dump dangerous chemicals without care, even though we all know it.

You can say whatever you want, but that's just your opinion. Unless you qualify to work at one of these institutes, your opinions matter little. Stop eating fish, or whatever - I hope you still go to the medical-science trained doctors when you're sick - the rest of us who trust the science will continue eating high quality seafood caught by our dedicated fishermen.

more disapprove of Yoon: poll

That's quite sad. I think President Yoon is the only S. Korean president in recent times who has made the effort to reach out to Japan.

I have tremendous respect for him....more so than other S. Korean presidents ( who seem to flame anti-Japanese sentiments).

The South Korean government, however, has said it sees no scientific problem with the water release, though stressing it does not approve of it, and banning the import of seafood from waters off Fukushima, north of Tokyo.

If you can't make up your mind followers will naturally lose confidence.

@Wesley

I have tremendous respect for him....more so than other S. Korean presidents 

Offer Yoon an asylum in Japan then, because Yoon needs one.

Yoon's going to prison after office, and the case against locally nicknamed "Traitor Yoon", the strongest charge is ironically treason, is considered to be stronger than the impeachment charges against President Park who was sentenced to 35 years in prison but was pardoned by Yoon.

Yoon himself neither loves nor hates Japan he's just doing what his party and the US wants him to.

"Koreans hate Japan excessively" people should read the following-

https://japantoday.com/category/national/'it-hurts-my-heart'-japan's-kanto-massacre-100-years-on1

The article simply chronicles one of the incidents that occurred during Japan's occupation of the peninsula.

The article simply chronicles one of the incidents that occurred during Japan's occupation of the peninsula.

It's not that Korea doesn't have a valid claim against Japan; the comfort women issue is a tragedy, and deserves a proper response, acknowledgement, and reparations. Japan agreed, and made a solid effort to fix the situation a decade ago, by working together with Korea to come up with what they both agreed was a "final and irreversible" agreement to end the matter. But before it could be ratified, the government changed, and the new government found it more beneficial to rip up the agreement and not provide any alternate proposal, but rather used Japan as a whipping dog to boost their own polling numbers.

Japan made a good faith effort. The Koreans said 'we want to use Japan to further our political power, and are not interested in improving relations'. And now it's a decade later.

Ah yeah actually no the 1965 "agreement" is widely misunderstood, as are most things regarding the Jpn-Korea situation.

The ROK president at the time was Park Chung-hee, who signed allegiance to the Emperor with his blood and fought in the Imperial army during WWII.

Park with backing of the US (Park trained at Fort Sill in Oklahoma post WWII) took power illegally with a coup d'etat.

Yes via the 1965 "agreement" Jpn did fork over a lot of money, but somehow most of that money didn't end up in the hands of the comfort women/laborers etc. but instead ended up funding Park's projects, which Japanese officials are well aware of.

Yoon is a traitor of Korea, he will endup the worst scenario than previous South Korean presidents!

elephant200Today  01:05 pm JST

Yoon is a traitor of Korea, he will endup the worst scenario than previous South Korean presidents!

It's impossible to make it any worse than it was under Moon.

If one understands the current situation in South Korea correctly, Yoon's response is not necessarily wrong. The Korean economy that Moon Jae-in destroyed is on the verge of going downhill. However, I personally think that it is not in the national interest for Japan to help South Korea at all.

The United States may want to keep South Korea in the blue team, but the burden on Japan should be reduced and the United States should take responsibility.

In 1965, the Korean government investigated former comfort women, but they were not eligible for compensation. That's because they weren't kidnapped or made to work like slaves.

There is an investigation by the Korean government, so what Koreans should do is to thoroughly check the facts before complaining to Japan. Unfortunately, the problem is that there are no Koreans who can do that.

This is because it is a characteristic of Koreans to pretend that they have not seen anything that is inconvenient without trying to find out for themselves.

Until the 1990s, Koreans were completely unaware of the 1965 Japan-Korea Basic Treaty. Koreans have long believed that Japan has not done anything, even though they have been telling Japan to pay compensation. That's because the Korean government didn't make it public.

It is a characteristic of Koreans not to reveal anything that is inconvenient.