1. This week's court decision slamming South Korea's nuclear regulator for legal violations in approving Wolsong-1's license extension will likely bolster antinuclear platforms of potential contenders in a presidential election that could take place as early as May (p3). Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), who hasn't yet announced his candidacy but is a frontrunner in a February poll by Gallup Korea, urged against an appeal by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission in a speech on Feb. 9. He underscored the importance of regulatory independence and said he was against reactor license extensions because they would delay a nuclear phase-out that he'd like to see completed in 40 years. Lee Jae-myung, another popular DPK candidate who has declared, tweeted on Feb. 8 that he welcomes the court's decision and will push for a nuclear phase-out. President Park Geun-hye, who beat Moon Jae-in in the 2012 election, was impeached in December in the wake of a scandal; her duties have been delegated to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn while the Constitutional Court weighs the impeachment motion (NIW Dec.9'16).
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