Anchor: President Moon Jae-in expressed regret Tuesday for the failure to solve the air quality problem and vowed that his government would deal with high levels of fine dust as if it were dealing with a disaster. Meanwhile, South Korean and Chinese officials continue to point fingers at one another during discussions on the air quality issue.
Kim Bum-soo has the report.

Report: As South Korean and Chinese officials discuss ways to reduce fine dust levels, President Moon Jae-in called for recognizing the air quality problem as a natural disaster.

During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president said he was sorry to the Korean public for not being able to solve the unprecedented fine dust levels seen last week.

[Sound bite: President Moon Jae-in (Korean)]
"Resolving the fine dust problem is a state task to protect the people's right to health. To keep that promise, we must recognize the fine dust problem as a disaster situation just like cold and heat waves... Last week, the public suffered due to the unprecedented number of days with high-levels of fine dust and I am very sorry for not being able to solve that problem."  

Moon suggested further developing technologies for artificial rain, air purification and dust collectors, asking his officials to think outside the box to solve the problem. 

While urging the parliament to revise related regulations to cope with the fine-dust problem, Moon also discussed China's role in the issue. 

[Sound bite: President Moon Jae-in (Korean)]
"I understand the public concerns over the fine dust from China... As China is suffering too, we need to strengthen cooperation to drastically reduce fine dust levels... Please make diplomatic efforts to jointly establish an early fine-dust warning system." 

The South Korean and Chinese foreign and environment ministries are holding a series of related meetings to discuss the air quality problem this week.

The Environment Ministry in Beijing has denied that China is behind the large clouds of fine dust particles being blown over the Korean Peninsula. Chinese officials claim that their government managed to reduce air pollutants by more than 40 percent between 2013 and 2018 while air quality remained the same or even worsened in South Korea. 

A ranking official at South Korea's Environment Ministry said despite the 40-percent improvement Beijing claims, air quality in China is still much worse than in South Korea. Officials also noted that it is general knowledge that Korea's atmospheric conditions are heavily affected by China during the fall and winter seasons.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.