Seoul, Aug. 26, 2021, SPA -- South Korea's foreign ministry summoned a Japanese Embassy official today to lodge a protest over Japan's plan to discharge radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, Yonhap cited officials as saying. Lee Tong-q, the ministry's director general for climate change, energy, environment and scientific affairs, expressed disapproval to Makoto Hayashi, minister plenipotentiary at the embassy in Seoul, over plans to start discharging the treated water into the sea by 2023 announced by Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the plant, earlier this week. Earlier this year, Japan announced what is considered to be decades long process, as all storage tanks at the nuclear plant are expected to be full as early as the fall of 2022. --SPA 21:55 LOCAL TIME 18:55 GMT 0027 www.spa.gov.sa/w1609997