Did radioactive fish make its way from the sea off Japan's damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima to fish markets in South Korea? No, that's not true: imports of fish from areas near Fukushima is banned and the government's food safety agency reports no nuclear radioactivity contamination in South Korea's fish supply.
The claim originated from a video (archived here) published by @midas7889 on Tiktok, on May 22. It includes links to #JapaneseNuclearpowerplantContaminatedWater #YoonsLie #YoonsProsecutionManipulates #ImpeachYoon #YoonsCorruption and a caption reading:
Devastation in Jeju (southern province in South Korea); fish exposed to nuclear radioactivity is already on the market
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Jul 6 01:09:15 2023 UTC)
No radioactive contamination of fish has so far been detected in South Korea's screening process started in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, according to National Fishery Products Quality Management Service. Also, importing any fisher product from the Prefecture of Fukushima and its neighboring 7 prefectures is banned by Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries, since 2013.
The post misleadingly uses video from two separate TV news packages shown by broadcaster MBC, with misleading captions to claim that fish from waters near the damaged nuclear power plant at Fukushima is currently sold in South Korean fish markets.
The two MBC stories are not linked, with the first report covering a controversial plan to release treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima plant reactors into the ocean, and it reports from Jeju province on strong opposition to the plan and shows anti-release protest footage. A second report misleadingly used in the post concern a story about a current flaw in the radioactivity safety screening system used to detect contaminated fish. The news report alleges that screening for contamination takes up to 5 days, meaning it may be too late to detect contaminated fish before it is bought and consumed.
The post offers no evidence to support its claim that radioactive fish is sold in South Korea or that the safety screening agency has failed to detect potentially contaminated fish.
