Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said Thursday the upcoming Seoul Nuclear Security Summit will be a major turning point for countries in putting their political aims into action.

“To define the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit in a nutshell, it will be an opportunity to develop the political will discussed in the 2010 Washington summit into detailed actions,” Kim told reporters in Seoul.

“As host, Korea will put in every effort to make sure that enhancing nuclear security can be established as an international norm at the summit.”

The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, to be held on March 26-27 at the COEX, Seoul, is the second of its kind after Obama brought 47 leaders to Washington in 2010 to discuss nuclear security.

Participating countries and international organizations of the upcoming summit are to hold their final sherpa meeting on Friday at COEX Intercontinental Hotel.

More than 200 sherpas and sous-sherpas will seek to reach a final agreement on the Seoul Communiqu, wrapping up the discussions held over the past two years since the 2010 Washington Summit.

While the 53 countries are due to broadly agree to reduce nuclear materials under the Seoul Communique, South Korea hopes the states will voluntarily set their individual targets to slash nuclear materials including plutonium and highly-enriched uranium, government officials said.

“For the past two years, there has been considerable progress in reducing nuclear materials including highly-enriched uranium. Many countries already have converted HEU reactors into low-enriched ones,” Kim said.

“Individual countries, including Korea, are expected to announce detailed goals,” he said.

The Seoul Communique, to be announced on Tuesday afternoon, will include 11 major goals and following actions, Kim said.


By Kim Yoon-mi
(yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)