South Korea to use radiation detectors, food from home at Tokyo Olympics 2020

SouthKorea's Olympic committee plans to buyradiationdetectorsand shiphomegrown ingredients to Japan for its athletes at theTokyoGames becauseof worries localfoodmay be contaminated by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Japan has posted data to show the country is safefromFukushimaradiationand many countries have lifted Fukushima-relatedfoodrestrictions.

TheKoreaSports & Olympic Committee (KSOC) plans to ship red pepper paste, a key ingredient inKorean dishes, and otherfoods, and check forradiationin meat and vegetables that can only be sourced locally due to stringent quarantine rules, a KSOC meals plan report shows.

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"Apparently, ingredients andfoodwill be transportedfromSouthKoreaas much as possible, possibly including cannedfood," Shin Dong-keun, a ruling Democratic Party member of the parliamentary sports committee who was recently briefed by KSOC, told Reuters in an interview.

"For this Olympicgames,foodis our team's main focus so they can provide safe meals for the athletes to eraseradiationworries, as opposed to in the past,foodwas meant to play the supplementary role of helping with their morale."

KSOC plans to arrange localKorean restaurants to prepare meals for baseball and softball players competing in Fukushima, as shipping boxed lunchesfromTokyois not feasible, it said in the "2020TokyoSummer Olympics Meals Support Centre Plan".

"TheseKorean restaurants should only handlefoodconfirmed asradiationfree,"

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station, located about 220 km (130 miles) northeast ofTokyo, was rocked by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011, sparking three reactor meltdowns.

More than 160,000 residents fled nearby towns in the aftermath asradiationfromthe reactors contaminated water,foodand air.

Greenpeace said on Wednesday thatradiationhot spots have been found at the J-Village sports facility in Fukushima where theTokyo2020 Olympic torch relay will begin.

SouthKoreahas stepped up demands for a Japanese response to concernsfoodproduced in the Fukushima area and nearby sea could be contaminated byradiationfromthe Fukushima plant.

Japan is having trouble removing more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated waterfromthe crippled plant.

When it finalises menus around April, the KSOC will consider askingTokyoto ease its stringent quarantine ban onSouthKorean produce, an official at the committee said.

The official saidSouthKoreawas preparing a separate meals plan due to concernsfromthe public and politicians overfoodsafety, unlike the United States and Australia whose athletes will mainly eatfoodprovided by the host country, Japan.

The official requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

SouthKorea's concerns about possible contaminationfromthe nuclear disaster has become a thorn in already contentious ties with Japan.

Seoul has banned imports of seafoodfromJapan's Fukushima region since the nuclear disaster, promptingTokyoto launch a World Trade Organisation complaint. Japan has said many nations such as the United States and Australia had lifted or eased Fukushima-related restrictions.

Japanese officialsuseinternational events to promote the recovery of areas hit by the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster to show producefromFukushima prefecture is safe.

Mineral waterfromFukushima was served on tables at the last month's G20 foreign ministers meeting it hosted in Nagoya.

TheSouthKorean Olympic committee plan to purchaseradiationdetecting equipment by February and station an inspector at its own cafeteria inTokyoduring thegames to check contamination levels, according to the KSOC report.

The budget for theTokyoOlympics meals service is earmarked at 1.7 billion won, which includes twice the amount of money for buying and shipping ingredients than previousgames, according to the committee.