Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
KEPCO loses battle to ban magazine over UAE deal
By Lee Hyo-sik
A Seoul court Friday denied an injunction filed by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) seeking to force the monthly ShindongA magazine to recollect all released copies of its April edition.
On March 18, the utility company asked the Seoul Central District Court to take all copies of the April edition off the shelves, insisting its article that Korea may be held responsible for the disposal of nuclear waste generated from the planned nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is groundless.
But the court dismissed KEPCO’s request, saying it seemed almost impossible to collect already distributed copies of the monthly magazine.
``The report only implies that UAE’s nuclear waste could be handled in a third country and that KEPCO may be involved in the process. This does not necessarily mean that Korea will have to bring UAE’s spent nuclear materials into the country to treat and keep them here,’’ it said in a ruling.
Korea won a $20 billion contract from the UAE in December 209 to build four nuclear reactors in Braka, 300 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi, by 2020.
The court also said in response to the monthly magazine’s article, KEPCO had issued a press release that the Middle Eastern nation will be responsible for treating and storing its own nuclear waste.
``The press release has been turned into stories by many media outlets. Even though ShindongA’s April edition is available to the public, KEPCO can sufficiently explain that its UAE counterpart is a primary entity for the handling of nuclear waste generated by nuclear plants there by citing contract provisions,” it said.
The magazine cited an excerpt from a document which it claimed was written by the state-owned Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp.
The paper said, ``the UAE would prefer using foreign suppliers’ services, if offered, to reduce the volume of spent fuel to reduce storage requirements. These services would be obtained under the condition that all reprocessing takes place outside the UAE. Reprocessing will not be considered by the UAE in any nuclear energy program.”