Lee Jae-myung Opposes Japan Coal Ash Imports, Government Responds: "Priority Review for Ban Items"

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung is urging public officials to block the import of Japanese coal ash at the Communication and Empathy Day event held last September at the Gyeonggi Northern Office in Uijeongbu.

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The government has responded to the proposal by Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, to strengthen regulations on the import of Japanese waste, including coal ash.

Earlier, in September last year at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Northern Office in Uijeongbu during the Empathy Communication Day event, Governor Lee Jae-myung pointed out, "We are importing coal ash while damaging the pride of the Republic of Korea just to make some money," adding, "Controlling such things is the public domain, and public officials have been entrusted with power to do this." He urged public officials to actively correct such injustices.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 30th that the Ministry of Environment has promulgated and will enforce from the 31st the revised Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Transboundary Movement of Waste, which allows the Minister of Environment to prohibit the import of waste items designated by the Minister.

According to the revision of the Enforcement Decree, the Ministry of Environment will first consider coal ash and waste paper as prohibited import items and will finalize the selection of these items through a "Research Project on the Selection of Prohibited Import Items."

Previously, coal ash only required notification to the Environmental Agency upon import, and there were no import restrictions on waste paper.

Most of the coal ash waste imported by Korea for use as cement raw materials is from Japan, and concerns about radioactive contamination have been continuously raised for a long time.

When the import of Japanese coal ash waste became a social issue in August last year, Governor Lee Jae-myung held a "National Assembly Forum on Regulating the Import of Japanese Coal Ash" and criticized it as "like eating delicious food in a pile of garbage," bringing the import regulation issue into public discussion.

He also continuously proposed legal amendments to the Ministry of Environment and recommended that only domestically produced cement be used in construction projects commissioned by Gyeonggi Province.

Waste paper was also able to be included as a prohibited import item following the province’s proposal. The volume of waste paper imported from overseas increased significantly from 814,000 tons in 2018 to 1.07 million tons last year, causing problems such as a decrease in domestic waste paper recycling rates and price drops.

Accordingly, during a meeting hosted by the Ministry of Environment last month, the province requested that waste paper be included along with coal ash in the list of waste subject to import restrictions.

This revision of the Enforcement Decree has opened the way to restrict imports.

Um Jin-seop, Director of the Environmental Bureau of Gyeonggi Province, said, "We are pleased that Gyeonggi Province’s efforts to ban waste imports have borne fruit," emphasizing, "We will closely cooperate with the Ministry of Environment to ensure that coal ash and waste paper proposed by Gyeonggi Province are introduced early as prohibited import items."