South Korea has restricted fishery imports from the territories of 8 Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima. According to Reuters, the decision was taken by the country’s government on September 6, due to concerns about radiation contamination.
The prohibition is imposed on the import of all fishery products from these regions irrespective of the fact they contain radioactive particles. Meanwhile, the government does not announce when the restrictions are removed. Moreover, Seoul announced that it decided to tighten the control over fishery products from other Japanese regions.
According to the official data, South Korea imported 5,000 metric tons of fishery products from the eight affected prefectures last year, out of a total of 40,000 metric tons of imports from Japan.
The Cabinet of Japan told a news conference that the water contamination was affecting only a very small area. Japan wants Korea to decide on Japanese imports based on scientific data.
In September, the Japanese government is to invest more than $470 million into building a frozen wall around the Fukushima nuclear plant to stop leaks of radioactive water. The decision to allocate money in building was taken after it was revealed that there were leaks from the Fukushima reservoirs.
The accident took place on the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011 after a severe earthquake which was followed by a tsunami. As a result, the cooling system was broken. Sea water that was used for cooling the reactor cores drained off to the ocean. Later special reservoirs were built for the contaminated water.
