China Agrees to Share Fine Dust Data with Korea

China has agreed to share fine dust forecasts for major Chinese cities such as Beijing and Tianjin with Korea this winter.

From December, Korea will be able to take advantage of the data to make forecasts about and respond to air pollution here.

The decision came in a trilateral environment ministers meeting between Korea, China and Japan in Kitakyushu, Japan on Sunday.

In a bilateral meeting with Japan, Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae also urged his Japanese counterpart to disclose data about how Japan is treating contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

But the Japanese minister said only in principle that data will be released "on a scientific basis," while reiterating that no decision has been made yet about how to dispose of the contaminated water.