South Korea and the UN disarmament office held a joint forum this week involving young people from around the world to discuss and raise awareness about disarmament and nonproliferation, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

The two-day forum, which ended Wednesday, marked the first of its kind that South Korea and the UN office has co-hosted on the disarmament and nonproliferation issues for younger generations.

Seoul has been championing the agenda, with last year's adoption by a UN committee of a South Korea-drafted resolution on encouraging youth participation in disarmament and nonproliferation issues.

At this week's forum, 25 young guests from 22 countries, including two from Seoul, gathered together via video link to discuss ways to enhance efforts in preventing weapons proliferation and achieving UN targets for reducing armed violence.

The young participants later adopted a declaration calling for efforts to promote international disarmament and nonproliferation.

"In particular, participants stressed the importance of young people around the world actively engaging in achieving peace and stability through sustainable international disarmament and nonproliferation," the ministry said in a release.

Also present at the forum were Ham Sang-wook, South Korea's deputy foreign minister for multilateral and global affairs, and Izumi Nakamitsu, UN undersecretary-general of disarmament affairs. (Yonhap)