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New industry minister demonstrates priorities with visits to nuclear plant, Busan port
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu, center, speaks to an employee at Saeul Nuclear Power Plant in Ulju County in Ulsan, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy
By Ko Dong-hwan
By Ko Dong-hwan
Korea's new Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu visited a nuclear power plant under construction in Ulsan and a Busan port for his first day on the job, signaling the ministry's priorities under his watch.
Starting his duty on Wednesday, Bang visited Saeul Nuclear Power Site in the southeastern coastal city of Ulsan and Busan New Port, the biggest port in Busan which sees 63 percent of the country's overall maritime international trade.
Saeul power plant has two APR1400 reactors, the same model exported to the United Arab Emirates for the Barakah nuclear energy plant in Abu Dhabi. Reactors 1 and 2 at the plant are also the first APR1400s in Korea.
Reactors 3 and 4 are currently under construction. Their construction was previously suspended during the previous Moon Jae-in administration when tensions divided the country on whether nuclear power should be abandoned due to its possible environmental risks or developed further to spur power generation and export.
The minister visited the construction site and encouraged the workers there.
Bang then went southwest to visit Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, where he met workers in the city's specialized industry of manufacturing parts and equipment for nuclear power plants. During a luncheon with the workers, the minister admitted that the country's nuclear energy industry has been losing capital and workforce since the previous government pushed forward its anti-nuclear policies.
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu, right, inspects containers at Hanjin Terminal at Busan New Port's wharf 3, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy
“Despite nuclear power's significance in providing a key portion of the country's power generation and its carbon-free cleanliness, the anti-nuclear policies have cost more than 30 percent of sales in the nuclear power industry and 17 percent of the workforce compared to before the policies were introduced,” the minister said in Changwon.
He promised them he would reintroduce pro-nuclear policies to normalize the country's nuclear ecosystem, including allowing nuclear workers to have their wages or bills paid in advance and preparing a special pool of funds to support the workers to compete with other countries.
Bang then visited Busan New Port that connects containership routes to about 500 ports in 150 countries. His visit came as he reckoned the country's exports, despite having recorded a third consecutive monthly net gain, has been stagnant since last October and boosting exports is essential for the national economy.
Meeting representatives of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Korea International Trade Association in Busan, the minister promised to scramble all available resources in the country to spur the economy. He said he will infuse a national fund of up to 182 trillion won ($137 billion) to support trade and exports by the end of this year and send envoys to India, Central America and other new markets Korea is targeting.
Earlier that day, Bang was at the National Assembly for a plenary meeting and gave a speech marking his ministerial appointment. He pledged to maximize exports and futuristic manufacturing sectors, recover nuclear power and introduce a realistic energy mix.