The rival parties had starkly contrasting reactions to the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) concluding that Japan's plan to discharge contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant meets international safety standards.

Ruling People Power Party spokesperson Kang Min-kook said on Tuesday that as a pivotal county in the international community, the nation should humbly accept the report, noting that it is the outcome of two years of inspections by a task force of experts from eleven countries.

Kang said that it is now time to respond calmly to Japan's plan to release the contaminated water based on a rational analysis, stressing that the issue has entered a new phase.

The spokesperson then urged the main opposition Democratic Party(DP) to stop spreading false rumors over the issue for political gain without any scientific basis.

The DP, on its part, condemned the IAEA report as a “hollow” assessment that failed to verify the safety of the planned discharge of the Fukushima water.

The party’s special committee against the release said in a press conference at the National Assembly on Tuesday that the agency has effectively abandoned its responsibility to verify the safety of the water.

The committee criticized the report for its total lack of verification on the performance of the plant’s custom purification system known as ALPS as well as the omission of a time frame for the treatment process.