The top diplomats of South Korea and Japan held bilateral talks Thursday over Tokyo's plan to discharge treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima plant and ways to deal with North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile provocations.
The meeting between South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in Jakarta came on the heels of a bilateral summit between the leaders of the two countries held a day earlier in Lithuania.
During the summit held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on the sidelines of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol asked Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to include South Korean experts in monitoring the planned water release and urged the discharge be stopped immediately if the concentration of radioactive material in the water exceeds standard levels.
In the closed-door ministers' meeting held on the sidelines of high-level meetings led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Park reiterated Yoon's request to Japan, which also called for a real-time sharing of monitoring information to verify whether the discharge process was implemented as planned.
Park requested the Japanese side take the necessary measures, but the issue of including South Korean experts in monitoring the release will need to be further discussed in consultations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Japan, a foreign ministry official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
"During his visit to Japan, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi signed a memorandum of understanding with Tokyo Electric Power Co. and built a mechanism for opening an office at the site," he said. "Details such as the size of the staff have not been confirmed yet so we can only discuss the issue when the points I mentioned take shape."
The Japanese minister did not mention a specific timeframe for the water release nor request Seoul to lift its import ban on seafood from the Fukushima region, the official added.
As part of efforts to maintain the latest momentum for reconciliation, the two sides also agreed to resume operations of a high-level bilateral economic consultation body within the year.
The ministers also strongly condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile provocation, carried out a day before the ASEAN-hosted meetings.
Earlier in the day, Pyongyang announced that it test-fired a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Wednesday, with its leader Kim Jong-un vowing to take a "stronger" military offensive until the United States abandons its hostile policy against his country.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim himself guided the test launch.
In the afternoon, Park is scheduled to participate in the South Korea-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting and the ASEAN plus three meeting, which also includes China and Japan.
During the talks, Park is expected to emphasize Seoul's resolve to implement its Indo-Pacific strategy introduced in November of last year and make efforts to earn an official endorsement of the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative, a core component of the Indo-Pacific strategy, from ASEAN members.
Issues involving North Korea and Myanmar, in particular, are likely to be covered during the ASEAN plus three meeting.
In the evening, the minister is scheduled to attend a reception for the heads of delegations by Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.
Source: Yonhap News Agency