Whale meat remains popular in the South Korean coastal town of Ulsan, which serves meat from whales "accidentally'' caught in nets. Activists have voiced suspicion that whales are often killed deliberately under the guise of accidents.
Kang said South Korea would conduct whaling in its own waters - in contrast to Japan, which infuriates Australia and New Zealand by killing hundreds of whales a year under the guise of research in Antarctic waters.
McCully: No need to kill whales for research
McCully said he hoped Korea would consider the concerns of countries like New Zealand before making a final decision on resuming whaling activities.
"Whales in these waters are already heavily targeted by Japan, and large numbers are also caught as by-catch by Korea. Any action by Korea to commence whaling in these waters following today's announcement will have serious consequences," McCully said.
He said a Korean resumption of whaling will place further pressure on the IWC, which he said is "already an organisation with difficulty sustaining itself as a credible international institution".
"The portrayal of this initiative as a 'scientific' programme will have no more credibility than the so-called scientific programme conducted by Japan, which has long been recognised as commercial whaling in drag.
"In this day and age there is simply no need to kill whales in order to conduct effective research."
McCully said New Zealand has voiced its opposition to the proposal at the IWC meeting and New Zealand's ambassador in Seoul will register "our serious concerns" with the Korean government.
"It is to be hoped that Korea will now give serious consideration to the widespread and strong objections being raised."
New Zealand's commissioner, Gerard van Bohemen, charged that South Korea would also be putting whale populations at risk and said that Japan had not contributed to science after years of expeditions.
South Korea's plan is "unnecessary and borders on the reckless. New Zealand is strongly opposed to Korea's proposal,'' he said.
Monaco's envoy Frederic Briand, a marine scientist and veteran conservationist, said that the Commission's allowance for scientific killing reflected research methods from when the body was set up in 1946.
"There is no doubt in my mind that scientists from Korea could well take advantage of the non-lethal techniques,'' he said.
Korea: Not a moral debate
South Korean delegate Park Jeong-Seok voiced anger at the foreign criticism. He said that Seoul did not need to inform about its whaling but was doing so ``in the spirit of trust, good faith and transparency.''
"As a responsible member of the Commission, we do not accept any such categorical, absolute proposition that whales should not be killed or caught,'' he said.
"This is not a forum for moral debate, this is a forum for legal debate,'' Park said. "Such kind of moral preaching is not relevant or appropriate in this forum.''
Under the Commission's rules, nations can conduct lethal research on whales, with the meat then going to consumption.
Norway and Iceland are the only nations that defy the moratorium entirely. Iceland also used to describe its whaling as scientific but shifted its position in 2006 and said it was commercial in nature.
South Korea carried out scientific whaling for one season after the 1986 moratorium went into effect. A report at the time by the International Whaling Commission's science committee said that South Korea killed 69 minke whales and provided ``no information'' of scientific use.
Japan also submitted a proposal Wednesday to resume the hunt of minke whales off its coast, but did not seek a vote after strong opposition by anti-whaling nations.
"The IWC's commercial whaling moratorium has caused us and our communities great distress for a quarter of a century,'' Yoshiichi Shimomichi, head of the Japan Small-Type Whaling Commission, told the conference.
Australian envoy Donna Petrachenko said that Japan's proposal, if approved, would mean "completely undermining the moratorium.''
While not killing minke whales, Japan each year hunts thousands of other cetaceans unregulated by the International Whaling Commission off its coasts _ most notoriously dolphins, which the western town of Taiji spears to death.
Russian delegate Valentin Ilyashenko voiced understanding for Japan's proposal as he explained his experience going for dinner in Panama, which has a strong US influence.
"Every visitor I see at restaurants asks for traditional Panamanian food, and as a rule they get a hamburger or pizza. I believe it's important to keep traditions and thus I support Japan's proposal,'' he said.
- HERALD ONLINE / AFP
