MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th August, 2023) The South Korean Foreign Ministry on Tuesday refuted reports that Tokyo had insisted on including support for its Fukushima water release plan in a joint statement of an upcoming trilateral summit of the United States with Japan and South Korea,
Earlier in the day, South Korea's newspaper Chosun Ibo reported that Japan seeks public support from South Korea and the US in its plan for a water release from Fukushima nuclear power plant. The media outlet wrote that Japanese officials were trying to persuade their counterparts to include their support for the plan in the joint statement.
"It is completely untrue," the ministry's deputy spokeswoman, Ahn Eun-ju, told in a briefing, as quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. She added that the three countries were coordinating closely so that all released documents were "in line with the purpose of the summit."
On Monday, Japan's Asahi Shimbun daily reported that Tokyo plans to start releasing radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into waters of the Pacific Ocean as soon as late August.
The summit between South Korea, the United States and Japan is scheduled for August 18 and is expected to be held in Camp David, located about 60 miles from the US presidential retreat near Washington D.C. This will be the first time the countries' leaders meet outside of a framework of a multilateral event.
At the summit, US President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and their Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, are expected to discuss economic and security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
