- East Timor fights new battles 25 years after independence vote
- Oil prices drop on easing fears over Middle East, most markets rise
- Reoxygenating oceans: startups lead the way in Baltic Sea
- King Charles III heads to Australia and Commonwealth meeting
- Wall Street stocks hit fresh records as oil prices slide
- Strike-hit Boeing leaves experts puzzled by strategy
- NASA launches probe to study if life possible on icy Jupiter moon
- EVs seek to regain sales momentum at Paris Motor Show
- NASA probe Europa Clipper lifts off for Jupiter's icy moon
- 'Unsustainable' housing crisis bedevils Spain's socialist govt
- Stocks shrug off China disappointment but oil slides
- Stocks diverge, oil retreats as China disappoints markets
- Trio wins economics Nobel for work on wealth inequality
- Ex-Stasi officer jailed over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as markets rally
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as Asian markets rally
- Nearly 90, but opera legend Kabaivanska is still calling tune
- With inflation down, ECB eyes faster tempo of rate cuts
- Is life possible on a Jupiter moon? NASA goes to investigate
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Ubisoft fears assassin's hit over falling sales
- Vietnam, China hold talks on calming South China Sea tensions
- SpaceX will try to 'catch' giant Starship rocket shortly before landing
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgery: reports
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
S. Korea says respects IAEA approval of Fukushima water release
South Korea said Wednesday it respects the UN atomic agency's endorsement of Japan's plan to release treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, despite growing domestic opposition and protests.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week gave the green light for a decades-long project to discharge accumulated water from the plant, which was devastated by an earthquake and a tsunami that hit the eastern coast of Japan in 2011.
After a two-year assessment, the IAEA said the release would have "negligible radiological impact" on people or the environment -- but the public in neighbouring South Korea is strongly opposed to the plan.
"The IAEA is a global authoritative body and the government's basic stance is we respect its decision," Park Ku-yeon, the first deputy chief of the policy coordination office, said at a daily briefing.
He added that the government would deliver its analysis of the IAEA's final review once South Korea's independent assessment is complete.
Some 80 percent of respondents in South Korea expressed concern about the release in a recent survey by Gallup Korea.
That planned release has triggered panic-buying of salt in South Korea, based on fears that the Fukushima water would pollute the ocean and also the salt sourced from seawater.
A local e-commerce site reported an 800 percent increase in salt purchases week-on-week in June around the time Japan announced its Fukushima water release plan.
South Korea's government is in the process of releasing up to 400 tons of sea salt from state reserves to stabilise the market.
There have also been regular public protests against the move, including one Wednesday outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
Some opposition lawmakers have even gone on hunger strike to protest the release.
Several of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant went into meltdown after cooling systems were overwhelmed by a massive 2011 tsunami.
The resulting nuclear accident was the worst since Chernobyl, and the clean-up has lasted more than a decade, with most areas declared off-limits due to radiation now reopened.
Decommissioning the plant itself will take decades more, but the facility's operator TEPCO faces the immediate problem of more than 1.33 million cubic metres of water accumulated on the site.
The water is a mixture of groundwater, rain that seeps into the area, and water used for cooling.
South Korea's stance on the release of that water contrasts that of China, which has expressed "regret" over the IAEA endorsement.
Since taking power last year, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has sought to bury the historical hatchet with Japan on issues including wartime forced labour as he seeks closer regional security cooperation in the face of rising nuclear threats from North Korea.
P.Schmidt--CPN