The Korea Herald

피터빈트

S. Korea to join major IAEA meeting next week

By KH디지털2

Published : Sept. 13, 2015 - 15:32

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South Korea will send an interagency delegation to an annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency this week, the Foreign Ministry announced Sunday.

The 59th General Conference of the 164-nation organization will be held in Vienna from Sept. 14-18.

Led by Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, the South Korean team will also include officials from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, and several other related agencies.

On Tuesday, Cho plans to deliver a keynote speech on the country's non-military nuclear program, the importance of nonproliferation and nuclear security, and efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, said the ministry.

The vice minister is scheduled to meet with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano on the sidelines of the session.

He will then attend the opening ceremony for the Korea pavilion at an exhibition there on sustainable nuclear power. Under the theme of "Let's go to a safer world with ATLAS," the pavilion is expected to help publicize South Korea's research and development capability in nuclear safety and security, said the ministry. The Advanced Thermal-hydraulic Test Loop for Accident Simulation is a large-scale thermal-hydraulic integral effect test facility.

South Korea joined the IAEA in 1957, the same year it was created. North Korea became a member in 1974 but withdrew from the agency in 1994.

The general conference is the highest policymaking body of the IAEA. (Yonhap)