Seoul attacked over whaling plans South Korea was condemned by governments and environmental groups on Thursday after Seoul announced plans to resume whaling in its waters for scientific purposes. Seoul's ministry of agriculture and fisheries said on Thursday that scientific research was badly needed to protect local fishermen from the damage that the increasing number of whales inflicts on fish stocks. It added that it would submit its scientific whaling plan to the International Whaling Commission's scientific committee next year and accept the committee's decision. But critics said scientific research was just an excuse for commercial whaling, because whalemeat is popular in some parts of South Korea and the country shows an unusually high rate of accidental whale catches. Seoul came under pressure to scrap its whaling plan after the country's delegation said on Wednesday at an IWC meeting in Panama that it would start whaling, by using the same tactic as Japan, which currently hunts whales under an exception for scientific research within the international moratorium on commercial whaling. Kang Joon-suk, Seoul's chief envoy to the IWC meeting, said consumption of whale meat "dates back to historical times" in his country and the minke whale population had recovered since the 1986 moratorium took effect. "Legal whaling has been strictly banned and subject to strong punishments, though the 26 years have been painful and frustrating for the people who have been traditionally taking whales for food," he told the IWC conference. His comments have immediately sparked international condemnation with Australia and New Zealand telling their ambassadors to take issue with it in Seoul. "We are completely opposed to whaling, there's no excuse for scientific whaling, and I have instructed our Ambassador in Korea to raise this matter at the highest levels of the Korean Government," said Julia Gillard, Australia's prime minister. Australia has been among the vocal opponents of whaling and launched action against Japan in the International Court of Justice over its scientific programme. The case is expected to be heard later this year. Greenpeace said Seoul's plan for scientific whaling was "just thinly disguised commercial whaling. This is the 21st century and it has been proven time and time again that we don't need to kill whales to study them," the group said. The plan was also strongly criticised by anti-whaling activists at home. The Korean Federation for Environment Movement called on the government to the ban whale meat trade. "We condemn the agriculture and fisheries ministry for following Japan's lead in hunting whales, which has become the object of international criticism," the group said. Norway and Iceland are the only countries that ignore the international moratorium completely, allowing commercial whaling. Japan has angered conservationist nations such as Australia and New Zealand by killing hundreds of whales a year in the Antarctic for so-called scientific research.