South Korea has filed an appeal against a ruling by the World Trade Organization(WTO) on its ban of Japanese seafood imports after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Monday that it will file an appeal against the WTO ruling in consideration of continued concerns about Japanese nuclear reactors and the food safety of South Koreans. 

South Korea prohibited imports of agricultural and fish products from Fukushima and its adjacent areas after radioactive leaks following the 2011 tsunami disaster in Japan. 

In 2013, Seoul took a stronger measure to ban imports from fisheries in eight other Japanese prefectures near Fukushima.

Japan officially lodged a complaint at the WTO in 2015 to challenge South Korea's import bans and additional testing requirements on fish caught from eight prefectures near Fukushima after 2013. 

A WTO dispute panel ruled in October that South Korea's measures were justified shortly after the 2011 nuclear disaster but maintaining them violated the WTO's sanitary and phytosanitary agreement.