S. Korean opposition party rallies against Japan's nuke wastewater dumping

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Lawmakers of the South Korean main opposition Democratic Party on Wednesday held a protest rally against Japan's dumping of nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean.

The lawmakers gathered in the square of a railway station in the country's southwest coastal city of Mokpo, shouting slogans of "We condemn Japan's dumping of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean" together with citizens joining the demonstration.

The participants urged the South Korean government to file a lawsuit with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea against the Japanese government and come up with measures to support the damaged fishermen and the fishery industry.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, said in the rally that Japan dumped the radioactive wastewater into the ocean just to save costs, noting that Japan's wickedness victimized people in South Korea and around the world.

Lee further noted that the South Korean government should clearly oppose Japan's marine dumping, which threatens the safety of all humankind.

"The ocean belongs to all humankind, but Japan turned the ocean into the dumping ground for nuclear wastewater at its disposal," Noh Pyeong-woo, chief of the federation of fishermen in South Jeolla province, said during the rally.

He noted that the Fukushima wastewater discharge would pose an unprecedented threat to all humankind and the entire ecosystem, urging Tokyo to stop causing trouble to humankind with the nuclear-contaminated wastewater.

Struck by a massive earthquake and an ensuing tsunami in March 2011, the Fukushima nuclear power plant suffered core meltdowns and generated a massive amount of water tainted with radioactive substances from cooling down the nuclear fuel.

Japan started discharging the first batch of radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean last Thursday.