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| In this photo from December 2015, members of an activist group calling for the cancellation of the construction of a nuclear power plant in Yeongdeok, protest in Seoul's Jongno District. Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Residents of Yeongdeok County and Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province organized a street demonstration, Monday, to protest against President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's purported plan to build a new nuclear power plant in the coastal county.
The protesters were irate at Yoon's plan, as it was already previously overruled by overwhelming majority of the local residents, who object to the idea.
The protesters said that they assembled in front of the Yeongdeok County Office building in the morning after seeing Yoon's interview with a news media outlet saying he will jump-start nuclear power generation in the county. Reviving the country's nuclear power plants was Yoon's pledge as a presidential candidate.
The plan was objected to by over 92 percent of the county's approximately 40,000 residents in 2015. The plan's failure to draw local support was accepted, and the plan was officially repealed in the National Assembly under the Moon Jae-in administration in March 2021.
The protesters condemned Yoon for regurgitating a policy that has already been resoundingly objected by the area's local residents.
"We feel both rage and sorrow that Yoon made such an infuriating commitment even before being inaugurated," the protesters said. "We vow to defend our cause until the death, or until Yoon's Presidential Transition Committee gets rid of its proposed plan."
The protesters said that it took 10 years of struggle for the plan to build a nuclear power plant in Yeongdeok to get repealed.
