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South Korean President Moon Jae-in walks toward a meeting room after receiving diplomatic credentials from newly appointed foreign ambassadors Wednesday, including Japan’s Koichi Aiboshi. (provided by the Blue House)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in issued orders Wednesday for the review of possible “provisional measures” and the submission of a case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to prevent the Japanese government from releasing radioactively contaminated water from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean.

Moon’s remarks came during a meeting of advisors convened at the Blue House that day, Blue House spokesperson Kang Min-seok said.

A Blue House official said the administration was “currently weighing different approaches,” explaining that the provisional measures in question “can be seen as something like an injunction request.”

According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the tribunal may order provisional measures as requested to protect the interests of each party to a dispute or to prevent serious damage to the ocean environment, the official explained.

The same day, Moon commented on Japan’s decision to discharge the contaminated water while meeting Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koichi Aiboshi, who was visiting the Blue House to present his credentials.

“As [Japan’s] closest neighbor sharing the same sea, South Korea is deeply concerned,” Moon told him, asking him to “clearly communicate these concerns to your country.”

Kang explained that the remarks were “quite out of the ordinary” and had come “during a conversation after the conferment ceremony for the ambassador’s credentials.”

Moon also commented that South Korea and Japan “are the closest of neighbors and friends both geographically and culturally, as well as very important partners who need to cooperate for the sake of peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and throughout the world.”

“With a will and a spirit of cooperation, we can overcome the most difficult challenges,” he added.

During the conversation, Aiboshi stressed the importance of cooperation with other countries, including the US, the Blue House said.

“Currently, the state of our two countries’ relationship is not entirely satisfactory, but hopefully we can resolve our issues through dialogue,” he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Taro Aso responded in a press conference Tuesday to the objections raised by South Korea, China and others to the Japanese government’s decision to release the radioactively contaminated water into the ocean.

“The concentration of tritium in Japan’s treated [contaminated] water is lower than what [nuclear power plants in] China and South Korea are releasing into the sea,” he said.

“Even drinking the [contaminated] water wouldn’t be a big deal,” he added.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]