South Korea may scrap plans to resume scientific whaling amid condemnation from environmental groups and governments, including Australia.
“We may not conduct whaling for scientific research if there is another way to achieve the goal,” said Kang Joon-Suk, an official with South Korea’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, according to the BBC.
Opponents of the move say South Korea simply wants to hunt the whales for food instead of for science.
Speaking to media during the East Asia Summit of foreign ministers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Australian foreign minister Bob Carr said he was confident South Korea would not proceed with whaling.
Carr said he spoke with South Korean foreign minister Kim Sung-hwan at the summit who “instantly said that they [Korea] would take the advice of the International Whaling Commission, that the views expressed by their people in Panama weren’t those of the government as a whole.”
He added, “I think it’s an enlightened and courageous decision and confirms South Korea’s aspirations to be a leader on the environment,” according to the Australian Associated Press.
The three countries that currently kill whales are Norway, Iceland, and Japan, which all, as well as South Korea, have a tradition of whaling. Norway and Iceland refused to sign the 1986 accord against whaling.
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