radwaste deal with N. Korea

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

International deal sparks protests focused around radwaste.
-------------------------------------


  SEOUL, Jan 25  - South Korean protesters burned  
Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui in effigy on Saturday as Seoul 
sought international pressure on Taipei to cancel a deal to ship
nuclear waste to impoverished North Korea. 
  Witnesses said scores of environmental activists burned a  
Taiwanese flag and an effigy with Lee's name on it in central 
Seoul. 
  A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said President Kim  
Young-sam expressed concern over the planned shipment at a 
meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on 
Saturday as part of a campaign by Seoul to pressure Taipei. 
  In the Japanese resort of Beppu, Hashimoto told Kim he  
shared South Korea's concern that the Taiwan-North Korean deal 
could have an environmental impact, a Japanese official said. 
  State utility Taiwan Power Co signed a contract with a North  
Korean state trading firm for the shipment of 60,000 barrels of 
nuclear waste to be shipped within two years. 
  South Korea has said there has been no verification that the  
North has safe facilities to store nuclear waste. 
  ``We have already asked the United States to exercise its  
influence to persuade Taiwan to abandon the plan to transfer 
radioactive waste to North Korea,'' spokesman Lee Kyu-hyung told
Reuters. 
  ``We will seek help from other countries because the  
Taiwanese plan threatens to pollute the Korean peninsula and the
region,'' Lee said. 
  Taiwan, which has an option to ship up to 200,000 barrels of  
nuclear waste to North Korea, has rejected Seoul's request to 
drop the deal. 
  ``The contract is purely a business activity. It will not be  
stopped because of political interference,'' Taiwan's Economics 
Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. 
  Taipower declined to disclose financial terms, but Taiwan  
media said the utility had agreed to pay cash-strapped Pyongyang
US$1,150 per barrel. 
  On a busy Seoul street, environmental groups staged a noisy  
protest. 
  After burning Lee in effigy, they distributed leaflets  
urging South Korean tourists to boycott Taiwan. 
  ``We will seek cooperation with international environmental  
groups to stop vessels carrying nuclear waste to North Korea,'' 
the leaflets said. 
  Taiwan said South Korea's concern was unwarranted, arguing  
the shipments would involve low-radiation waste securely packed 
in steel barrels. 
  But the protesters said North Korea planned to store the  
waste in an abandoned mine with no safeguards and they would 
organise a campaign to boycott Taiwanese products if Taipei went ahead
with the contract. 
  The South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said there were  
no international regulations barring the transfer of 
low-radiation waste because the shipment was unprecedented. 
  Deputy Foreign Minister Song Young-shik on Friday met the  
head of Taiwan's mission in Seoul, Lin Tsun-hsin, to express 
``strong opposition'' to the nuclear waste contract, he said. 
  Taiwan has no diplomatic ties with either North or South  
Korea. 

Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Office: (800) 548-5100 Ext. 2306 
Fax: (714) 668-3149

E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com    

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