Presidential Office: Opposition's ‘dumping orders’ allegations are nonsense

The presidential office rebutted the opposition party’s criticism that nuclear power plant exports to the Czech Republic will cause a loss of trillions of won on Thursday, calling it “nonsense and fake news with no basis whatsoever. "

“It’s absolute nonsense to discredit the president’s efforts to create jobs and revitalize the economy by rebuilding the nuclear ecosystem through his overseas tour,” Park Chun-seop, the presidential secretary of economic affairs who is accompanying President Yoon Suk Yeol on his official visit to the Czech Republic, said in a briefing on Thursday.

“Spreading fake news without any basis is not helpful for future contract negotiations and undermines the national interest,” said Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Duk-geun in a subsequent briefing on the alleged ‘dumping order.’ “The Czech government has stated that it chose South Korea because it trusts the country’s proven ability to meet construction deadlines and budget,” he added. ”The Czech ambassador to South Korea has mentioned that Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) proposed a fair price.” Ahn also said that the opposition party’s allegations of a loss from nuclear exports were not true at all. ”The Czech government plans to finance the construction of new nuclear reactors on its own, and there has been no request for financial cooperation from the Czech side to date.”

“If we go on as we are, we may lose trillions of won and have to spend public taxpayer money,” said 22 lawmakers of the Democratic Party of Korea, including Kim Jung-ho and Min Hyung-bae, on Thursday. They urged the government to “completely reconsider the nuclear power plant export plan that is being pursued too hastily.”

The domestic nuclear power industry also said that the opposition lawmakers’ allegations of dumping orders for Czech nuclear reactors are far from the truth. “The estimated project cost of 24 trillion won for two new nuclear reactors announced by the Czech government is not a small amount,” industry experts said. It is more than twice as much as the estimated construction cost of 11.7 trillion won for Shin Haul 3 and 4, whose construction permit was announced last week, and 9 trillion won more than the project cost of 30 trillion won for four reactors estimated by South Korean media before the announcement of the preferred bidder for the Czech’s new nuclear reactors.


Na-Ri Shin journari@donga.com