Responding to intense disputes among residents of Buan, North Jeolla Province in recent months over the local construction of South Korea's first nuclear waste dump, Commerce, Industry and Energy Minister Yoon Jin-sik said Wednesday that the government plans to seek additional candidate sites for the controversial facility.

The minister said that the selection of Wido Islet as the site for the nuclear waste facility had not accurately reflected the opinions of residents of Buan County.

Wido belongs to the county, located some 280 km south of Seoul on the country's west coast.

Yoon's remarks were a departure from the government's long-held stance that the selection was made in accordance with low-income Wido islanders' wishes to accept the facility in return for a financial aid package Seoul had consequently claimed it could not change the location of the site.

Currently, Buan residents are seeking a vote on whether to approve the nuclear waste dump, but a date for balloting has yet to be decided.