The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- South Korea urged to restore trust in nuclear power
- New Zealand joins Australia in court against Japanese whaling
- Gunmen kill seven in Guatemala in attempted hit on drug dealer
| South Korea urged to restore trust in nuclear power Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:17 PM PST SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea needs to rebuild public trust in nuclear power by boosting transparency and improving regulation, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday, after safety scares have closed reactors and threaten to trigger blackouts over winter. Asia's fourth-largest economy lacks its own energy resources and depends heavily on oil and gas imports while 23 nuclear reactors usually supply a third of its power. The country plans to add 11 more by 2024. But the nuclear sector has suffered a big blow after an investigation into fake safety documents for parts led to two reactors being shut and after an extended shutdown of another reactor where microscopic cracks were found. Unveiling a report on South Korea's energy policies, the IEA backed the country's nuclear programme, but said more needed to be done to restore faith in a sector also facing greater global scrutiny after last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. "Given the growing demand for energy and Korea's lack of indigenous energy resources, this is a logical policy," Maria van der Hoeven, the IEA's executive director, said in a statement. "Nonetheless, recent incidents at Korean nuclear facilities should serve as a timely reminder to the government that the nuclear regulatory authority must maintain an enhanced profile, be well-resourced and able to take independent decisions." The IEA, which advises industrialized nations and represents 28 oil importing countries, last released a report in South Korea in 2006. There is a lot at stake for South Korea, which also wants to play a growing role in the global nuclear industry, and aims to export 80 nuclear reactors by 2030, which could be worth a total of $300 billion, according to government plans. A $20 billion deal with the United Arab Emirates has already been signed. Van der Hoeven said the government needed to openly deal with concerns of local communities hosting nuclear facilities. The South Korean government has been criticised for a lack of transparency over safety in its nuclear programme and for the dual supervisory and promotion roles of its regulators. The country's public is traditionally seen as pro-nuclear, although an opposition lawmaker has pressed the government to resume publishing polls on nuclear safety after a loss of public confidence in the sector in the wake of Fukushima. MORE COMPETITION FOR POWER, GAS Highlighting the vulnerability of its energy sector, South Korea has warned it may have to bring in rolling power blackouts during the harsh Korean winter due to a lack of nuclear power. Six reactors are currently offline, with one restarting earlier this week, according to government data. Van der Hoeven said the country needed to increase competition in its power and gas markets. "The lack of a clear, long-term vision for electricity and natural gas markets is one of the greatest energy-policy challenges facing the Korean government," she said. "The IEA strongly urges the Korean government to establish a framework that allows the development of effective competition in the electricity and natural gas markets." South Korea is the world's fifth-largest crude oil importer and second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyer. More consumers should be given the choice of buying gas at market prices from other sources and not just from state-run Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS), the world's largest corporate buyer of LNG and the country's sole gas wholesaler, South Korea's economy ministry quoted the IEA's full report as saying. "Energy markets are dominated by incumbents and have been slow to open up to competition while consumers face the threat of electricity supply shortfalls." Another state-run utility, Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO), is the sole electricity transmitter and distributor, buying from six fully-owned power generators. Both KOGAS and KEPCO are suffering billions of dollars of losses as the government tries to hold down power charges to curb inflation. (Additional reporting by Somang Yang and Jane Chung; Editing by Anthony Barker and Ed Davies) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
| New Zealand joins Australia in court against Japanese whaling Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:12 PM PST WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand has joined Australia in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a case against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said on Friday. McCully said New Zealand would support Australia's case in the ICJ after diplomatic initiatives have failed to halt Japanese whaling in the region. "New Zealand has worked hard with Japan for over three years to try and find a permanent solution to whaling in the Southern Ocean," he said in a statement. "The government will continue to use all avenues possible to try to bring a halt to Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean." Australia filed a complaint against Japan at the ICJ in 2010, arguing that Japan was violating the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling by killing whales for research purposes. A decision is expected in 2013 or later. In December 2010, the New Zealand government decided in principle to intervene in the case. Intervention is a procedure that enables a non-party to the case to put its legal views before the court. Japan, Iceland and Norway are the only countries to engage in whale hunting. Japan introduced what it described as scientific whaling to skirt the commercial whaling ban under a 1986 moratorium and argues it has a right to monitor the whales' impact on its fishing industry. Anti-whaling activists regularly harass Japanese vessels in their annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean off Australia and Antarctica, with the two sides sometimes clashing violently. At least one activist boat has sunk in recent years. (Reporting by Mantik Kusjanto; Editing by Ron Popeski) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
| Gunmen kill seven in Guatemala in attempted hit on drug dealer Posted: 22 Nov 2012 08:02 PM PST GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Gunmen dressed as police officers shot dead seven men at a Guatemalan health clinic on Thursday in a brazen attempt to kill an alleged drug trafficker, who managed to escape the firefight, the government said. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez told reporters a gang of men entered the clinic in an upper-class neighbourhood of the capital looking for frequent client and alleged Guatemalan drug trafficker Jairo Orellana. When security turned the men away, the assailants opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles, killing six men thought to be Orellana's personal security and one clinic guard before speeding away in five sport utility vehicles. "The attack in the capital could be the product of a power struggle between drug traffickers," Lopez told reporters. "It was directed at Jairo Orellana." Orellana escaped from the clinic unharmed, Lopez said. Officials said one of the victims was a man from Alta Verapaz, a rural province roughly 75 kilometres north of the capital, where the government declared a 'state of siege' in December 2010, suspending constitutional rights to try to wrest control from the powerful Mexican cartel Los Zetas. Mexican drug gangs have spread their operations deeper into Central America in order to smuggle South American cocaine toward the United States. In May last year, Los Zetas beheaded 27 innocent farm workers in the northern border region of Peten in a dispute with the farm's owner over drug trafficking routes. Guatemalan president and retired General Otto Perez took office in January promising to crackdown on violent drug gangs in one of the world's most murderous countries. (Reporting By Mike McDonald; editing by Christopher Wilson) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
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