Korea will not circulate or consume meat from whales caught for scientific research, the government said Wednesday, raising the credibility of its claim that its planned resumption of whaling will be limited to scientific purposes.

"We have from the very beginning said the meat from scientific whaling will not find its way to the market," an official from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries told the Yonhap News Agency, asking not to be identified.

The sales-ban on meat from scientific whaling will significantly distance the country from Japan, which has long been criticized for abusing the so-called "science loophole" in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) charter. Tokyo allows commercial sales of meat from whales caught for scientific purposes.

South Korea notified the IWC last week of its plans to resume whaling for scientific research, prompting an international outcry and accusation that it seeks to follow in Japan's footsteps.

The ministry official said the country will also limit whaling to immediate waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula, unlike Japan whose scientific whaling vessels regularly operate in international waters.

The official said such restrictions have not been voiced publicly as they will be finalized after consultation with the IWC's Scientific Committee.

"Even if the government decides to submit a report of its whaling plans to the IWC in the future, whether the country actually resumes whaling for scientific research will depend on international regulations and procedures and will fully respect the recommendations of the IWC's Scientific Committee," the ministry said in a press release.

Scientific whaling does not require IWC approval, but the government said such a report to the IWC would be devised through close consultation with the IWC committee, as well as other "concerned" members of the whaling oversight commission.

Ministry officials said the country may choose not to resume whaling should there be other means to study marine mammals in South Korean waters.

Kang Joon-seok, head of the ministry's fishery policy bureau, said the main reason for the country's planned scientific whaling was to identify and study the species of whales in South Korean waters.

"But if there is a way to achieve the goal of such a scientific research without catching whales, (the country) may consider such alternative means," he told reporters.

South Korea has banned catching any type of whales since 1986 even though the IWC charter bans whaling of only 12 specific species of whales.

The government said one of reasons for a need to resume scientific whaling was to limit the number of whales in its home waters, estimated at about 80,000.

The whales in South Korea's adjoining waters are believed to be eating away some 146,000 tons of fish annually, about 12 percent of the country's annual fisheries production, according to the ministry.

Ministry officials said the country's scientific whaling will not be resumed at least until after a IWC Scientific Committee meeting, which is set to be held in South Korea in May 2013.

Whale meat remains popular in coastal towns of South Korea with whales accidentally caught in nets remaining the only source of such meat. (Yonhap)