South Korea backs down on plans to start whaling program

SOUTH Korea has confirmed it will abandon for now its plans to start a scientific whaling program after strong protests from Australia, the US and other nations.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said his South Korean counterpart Kim Sung-hwan had told him during talks at the East Asia summit in Cambodia today of the decision.

No reasons were given for the about-face, but it's believed South Korea may have been surprised at the strength of the opposition from its main security guarantor the US and a key trading and defence partner in Australia.

Minister Carr congratulated South Korea for taking the advice of the International Whaling Commission in not proceeding with its plan to begin "scientific" whaling off its own coast.

"Korea has committed itself to green growth and is capable of becoming a global green superpower," he said.


"I acknowledge the nation's responsiveness and leadership."

South Korea has a small domestic market for whale meat. The meat is largely "by-catch" from whales that fishermen say have swum into their nets.

Conservationists are sceptical that that is really how the whales are caught, but in any case the number captured each year is far lower than Japan's target of more than 1000 whales.

Kang Joon-Suk, a senior official from the South Korean Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, earlier earlier outlined the rethink.

"We may not conduct whaling for scientific research if there is another way to achieve the goal," Kang Joon-Suk said.

Australia has previously already taken Japan to the International Court of Justice over its whaling program.

South Korea told an International Whaling Commission meeting in Panama last week that it would seek to resume whaling after banning hunts in 1986 in line with an IWC dictate.

Norway and Iceland openly defy the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, saying they believe stocks are healthy.

Japan already uses the loophole for scientific research, with the meat then going on dinner plates.

The Australian