Seoul Communique to include comprehensive action plans to fight nuclear terrorism


Only 30 days are left before the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, the largest-ever diplomatic conference held in Korea.

The second of its kind after U.S. President Barack Obama inaugurated the Nuclear Security Summit in 2010 in Washington, D.C., the Seoul summit will seek more detailed ways of international cooperation to protect nuclear materials and facilities from terrorism.

Nuclear security refers to a series of preemptive measures to prevent internal and external threats related to nuclear materials, radioactive substances, relevant facilities or other associated activities.

While non-proliferation efforts in that non-proliferation is discussed to reduce nuclear arsenals, nuclear security is about preventing nuclear materials from getting into the hands of terrorists, according to Kim Bong-hyun, a summit sherpa responsible for arranging the conference agenda.

Although South Korea is directly under threat from North Korea, which is believed to have developed nuclear weapons, the nuclear arms of North Korea and Iran are not on the official agenda.

“The North Korean issue is not an official agenda item but we cannot say the North Korean issue is completely irrelevant to the Seoul summit,” Kim said in a press briefing.

“In the context of the nuclear summit, it can be discussed in other forms such as bilateral talks,” he said.

The international community and civic groups broadly agree that nuclear weapons should eventually disappear.

However, terrorist groups including al-Qaida and Taliban are trying to access information on how to tamper with nuclear materials, Kim said.

“The Obama administration announced a four-year lockdown vision ― which is to complete the international cooperation system for nuclear security by 2014. The Seoul summit will be the middle checkpoint,” he said.

The number of participating countries in the Seoul summit will be 53, an increase from the 47 that attended the Washington summit, according to the organizers.

South Korea, as chair, extended invitations to three more countries ― Denmark, Lithuania and Azerbaijan ― at the latest sherpa meeting in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 16-17. Hungary, Romania and Gabon were also recently added.

In addition, international organizations including the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the European Union and Interpol will also attend.

While the Washington Communique of 2010 broadly touched upon shared goals to enhance nuclear security and reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism, the 2012 Seoul Communique is expected to focus on safely securing nuclear materials such as highly-enriched uranium, or HEU, plutonium and radioactive materials that can be used to make so-called “dirty bombs.”

Participating countries will likely see their interests conflict when talking about whether they should convert civilian reactors from HEU reactors to LEU (low-enriched uranium) ones.

Military possession of HEU is another contentious issue.

While non-nuclear powers say a tight control not only on civilian holdings of HEU but on military holdings should be included in the main agenda, nuclear powers are cautious in doing so.

Participating countries also have different opinions on whether to include the issue of nuclear plant safety in the Seoul Communique.

Ensuring the safety of nuclear plants has become a significant issue, especially after the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by the earthquake and tsunami last March 11.

Although ensuring the safety of nuclear facilities has emerged as an important issue, the core agenda should still be nuclear security, some participants say, according to Kim.

The Seoul Communique is also expected to include promoting nuclear security and activities by the IAEA and other international organizations as well as multilateral consultative mechanisms related to nuclear security.

“Korea’s hosting of the nuclear security summit can encourage the U.S. and China to demonstrate their more cooperative attitudes toward the summit, while relations between Washington and Beijing are becoming more significant for the Korean Peninsula,” Chun Chae-sung, a professor of diplomacy at Seoul National University, said at a forum.

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