▲ This file photo, taken May 9, 2023, shows IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi in a meeting with Prime Minister Han Deok-soo in Vienna. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) IAEA chief-S Korea

(LEAD) IAEA chief to visit S. Korea this week to discuss agency report on Fukushima water discharge

(ATTN: UPDATES with more info throughout)

By Kim Han-joo

SEOUL, July 4 (Yonhap) -- The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit South Korea later this week to discuss the U.N. watchdog's safety review of Japan's planned release of water from its crippled Fukushima plant, an official said Tuesday.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will arrive Friday after a four-day trip to Japan aimed at delivering the results of the IAEA's final report, which is widely expected to approve the discharge of contaminated water into the ocean. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later in the day.

Park Ku-yeon, the first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said the director will then come to South Korea for a three-day trip, including a meeting with the head of the country's nuclear safety watchdog, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission.

"Besides, Director General Grossi is expected to have other schedules, such as a meeting with the foreign minister," Park told a daily briefing on the Fukushima issue.

Park also said the South Korean government is in the final stage of its own scientific analysis of the discharge plan based on the results of its inspection and the participation on the IAEA's monitoring team.

South Korea's 21-member team completed its six-day trip to Japan in late May, which included the on-site inspection. Also, a South Korean expert has participated in the IAEA's monitoring team, which had previously released five interim evaluations.

"We expect to present (the final analysis) to the people sometime soon," Park said.

Japan has not yet specified a date for the start of the water release, which is expected to take place over the next few decades, pending the IAEA's final review and approval from its nuclear regulatory body, despite opposition from neighboring countries.

In response to heightened public concern, Seoul launched a daily press briefing last month to keep the public updated on the planned release of contaminated water from the plant, which was severely damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

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