Global Reaction

ROK 'unlikely to be affected by radiation leak'

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-14 16:36

SEOUL- South Korea is unlikely to be affected by a radiation leakage from quake-damaged Japanese nuclear power plant, the foreign ministry said here on Monday.

"We don't believe there was a large-scale leakage, and therefore it seems unlikely that the Korean peninsula will be affected by the leak," foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-Je told reporters at a news briefing.

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The amount of radiation detected at the country's easternmost island of Ulleung, the closest to the stricken plant in the Japanese province of Fukushima, remains at a minimum level, he said, adding that the direction of the wind blows from north-west toward the Pacific Ocean also unlikely to directly influence the Korean peninsula.

Concern has been on the rise here that the leakage at the crippled atomic power plant in Japan, hit by an explosion following the strongest earthquake to rattle Japan, might affect neighboring South Korea.

The (South) Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety operating is currently operating a 24-hour situation room to keep a closer eye on the related development.