Environmental Study

[Anchor Lead]

A tripartite environmental ministers' meeting was slated for this weekend in China. The environment ministers of Korea, China, and Japan were supposed to release the findings of a joint study on air pollution in Northeast Asia at the meeting, but it appears the study results won't be made public due to protests from the Chinese government.

[Pkg]

NASA has found that 34% of the fine dust pollutants in Korea originated from China, but Beijing has not acknowledged the result. This is why the latest study overseen by the governments has attracted so much attention. But the Chinese government has suddenly taken issue with the study's credibility. They claimed that China's fine dust data used in the study was outdated and pulled from 2008 and 2010 figures.

[Soundbite] Hong Dong-gon(Ministry of Environment) : "They claim the results are uncertain because the data is old. They also say that releasing such uncertain data to the press without revision would cause misunderstanding."

But Korean researchers involved in the joint project do not agree. Although actual data has not been made public, China's air pollutants emission factor or national contribution factor stated in the research must have caused concern for Beijing. China has an excuse for objecting to the disclosure, because the Korean government didn't specify at the previous tripartite meeting that the study outcomes would be released to the public. If the amount of air pollutants emitted in Korea, China, and Japan that move among the three countries is not disclosed, the joint fine dust research sponsored by the three government may not be effective in improving this environmental problem.