Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Turning Away From Fukushima, Back Towards Busan

OK...  Things appear to be calming down around the Fukushima nuclear plant.
No, things are not settled over there, nor will they be for 6 to 9 months...  But the quantity of Fukushima-related news in the Korean press is slowly diminishing.

I was surprised, actually, at how the disaster in Japan became the number one news story even in Korea.  At the same time, it is perhaps not surprising that this happened, as Japan is a neighbouring country of Korea.  But for some time after the March 11 earthquake, events occurring in Japan seemed to be getting more coverage in the South Korean press than events involving North Korea.  This is a big deal, I think, as North Korea is a major news-maker over here.  So much so that the English web-site of the KBS has an entire section dedicated to stories tagged as "Inter-Korea".

Given the dramatic events that have occurred in Japan, I have only written 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 blog entries in the last month that did not discuss some aspect of the situation in Japan.  The Japanese crisis is certainly still having repercussions in Korea.  For example, a nuclear power plant located close to Busan has recently stopped operating and is now undergoing a detailed inspection, possibly as a result of public worries about nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima crisis.  But I expect to be able to write more about Korea now that the situation in Japan is slowly coming under control.

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