Yoon arrives in Lithuania to attend NATO summit

President Yoon Suk Yeol waves as he and his wife Kim Keon Hee disembark the presidential jet at Vilnius Airport in Lithuania, Monday (local time). Yonhap

President to talk with Kishida over Fukushima water release plan

By Nam Hyun-woo

VILNIUS ― President Yoon Suk Yeol arrived in Lithuania, Monday (local time), to attend the 2023 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and a slew of diplomatic meetings. Yoon's itinerary includes talks with the Japanese prime minister, during which he will likely demonstrate his administration's position on the safety of Tokyo's plan to release treated wastewater from its damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Yoon will kick off his six-day trip to Lithuania and Poland by attending the NATO summit in Vilnius as the leader of an observer country. He will then fly to Poland on Wednesday for an official visit, which will include a summit with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

According to presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon, Yoon will partake in bilateral summits with the leaders of Norway, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Estonia, Slovakia, Finland, Lithuania and Japan on the sidelines of the NATO event.

He will also meet NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and preside over four-way talks of NATO's Asia-Pacific partner countries, called AP4 which comprises Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Hiroshima, Japan, May 21. Yonhap

The summit with Kishida, the sixth of its kind between the two leaders, is gaining the most attention among Yoon's planned events.

Japanese news outlets have already speculated that Kishida will likely explain to Yoon how Tokyo will control and monitor its release of wastewater from the Fukushima plant into the ocean and convince critics of the safety of its plan.

Recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced its final report on Japan's release plan and said that it meets safety standards as the water would have a negligible radiological impact on both people and the environment. Following the IAEA report, Korea also announced its own analysis of Japan's plan, concluding that it meets international standards and Seoul respects the IAEA report.

However, Korea's main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is rejecting both the IAEA report and Seoul's, claiming the former was “tailored for Japan.”

A Gallup Korea poll conducted from June 27 to 29 also showed that 78 percent of 1,007 respondents said they are worried about the safety of the release plan. Further details of the poll are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.

Against this backdrop, the level of Yoon's response to Kishida's explanation is gaining focused attention.

Along with the wastewater discharge issue, the president is anticipated to tap into issues including the war in Ukraine, partnership between NATO and the Indo -Pacific region and joint response to emerging security threats during a series of summits and meetings in Lithuania, according to First Deputy Director of National Security Kim Tae-hyo.

In addition, South Korea and NATO will adopt documents for bilateral cooperation across 11 sectors, including nonproliferation, cybersecurity and emerging technologies.

"We will share ways South Korea plans to contribute to peace in Ukraine, which is one of the most important issues in the international community, and realize in detail our global responsible diplomacy," Kim said during a press briefing last week.

"It will be an opportunity to expand the horizon of our diplomacy with Europe through direct exchanges with more leaders as we share the values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law, and further deepen cooperation with NATO states and partners.”

In Poland, he will hold separate meetings with the prime minister and with speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament as well as Duda to explore ways to further develop the bilateral strategic partnership.

Yoon also plans to meet with officials from South Korean businesses operating in the Central European country, who are preemptively seeking possible roles in the post-war reconstruction projects for Ukraine.

This will be Yoon's first bilateral visit to a European nation since taking office. He will also be the first South Korean president to pay an official visit to Warsaw since Lee Myung-bak in 2009.