A shameful nuke deal

Taipei may sigh in relief at Pyongyang's decision to allow -- at a price -- Taiwan to dump nuclear waste on North Korean soil, but the furor the deal has caused should serve as a wake-up call for countries dependent on nuclear energy.

Taipei's decision to negotiate with Pyongyang risks a major political fall-out with the United States. But it is also a reflection that developing countries, traditional dumping grounds for nuclear waste from the industrialized world, are now more reluctant to accept cash for waste. As such, it seems, the only solution to Taiwan's nuclear waste problem is a rethink of the country's energy policies.

Under the agreement announced earlier this month, Taiwan's state energy organization Taipower, will dump some 200,000 drums of waste at a proposed storage facility on Gurrop Island off North Korea's southwestern coastline. It has not been disclosed how much money Taipower will pay Pyongyang.

South Korea has already protested vehemently to Taiwan about the agreement, with Foreign Minister Yoo Chong-ha saying Seoul would oppose the deal by "economic and political means".

South Korea's strong statement has caused some surprise in Taipei although there would appear to be little Seoul can do since it cut off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1991 in favor of China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province.

Seoul has every reason to be worried. Nuclear contamination of the North could become its own problem in the event of unification.

The real truth behind Taiwan's nuclear power program has been concealed from the world. Already, 90,000 barrels of nuclear waste have been dumped on Lanyu island inhabited by the indigenous Dawu people. The government has promised Lanyu that the barrels will be removed by the year 2002, but residents on the island on the southern tip of Taiwan, have little faith in the authorities.

High levels of leukemia have been recorded among the 5,000 Dawu people on the island, but medical records, particularly of workers at Taipower, have been kept secret -- even from the workers themselves. Because of the strong anti-nuclear lobby within the country, an overseas dumping spot has been chosen.

The disturbing thing is that Taiwan is now sending the waste to a more impoverished country with less organized people and paying money for it.

At the same time, Taipei has no qualms about creating more instability on the Korean peninsula while the world merely watches.

-- The Nation, Bangkok