South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Saturday a delegation will visit the Fukushima nuclear power plant later this month for a four-day assessment of the safety of a planned release of treated radioactive water into the sea.
Senior foreign ministry officials from South Korea and Japan met Friday in Seoul and discussed the visit through the early hours of Saturday. They will continue to work out the details.
The inspection of relevant facilities by the delegation was agreed upon earlier this week during a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as the two neighbors see improvements in bilateral ties amid growing security threats in East Asia.
Concerns linger in South Korea over the potential impact of the treated water on the ocean environment, despite Japan's pledge to start discharging the water around this summer in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure its safety.
Water that has become contaminated after being pumped in to cool melted reactor fuel has been accumulating at the complex, devastated by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and has also mixed with rainwater and groundwater at the site.
The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., the operator of the crippled complex at the time, had been considering ways to safely dispose of the water amid strong opposition to the plan from local fishermen and neighboring countries, such as South Korea.
About 1.33 million tons of treated water was stored on the plant's premises as of late April and is edging closer to the capacity of 1.37 million tons, according to TEPCO.
