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Chinese authorities absent from Seoul Defense Talk

Posted September. 09, 2016 07:17,   

Updated September. 09, 2016 08:35

한국어
"With close cooperation with the international community based on the tight security system, South Korean government would make North Korea give up its nuclear ambition," President Park Geun-hye said on Thursday in her video message for the opening ceremony at the plenary session of "Seoul Defense Talk 2016", an international security conference annually held by the Ministry of National Defense of Korea. With 34 participating nations including the U.S., Russia and Japan, and some 300 public and private experts of diplomacy and security from international organizations such as the United Nations, the Talk began on Thursday at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul and will continue its discussion over key diplomatic issues such as North Korea's nuclear test, cyber threats, terrorism and more until Friday. After President Park made a state visit to Uganda last May, the nation broke off its diplomatic ties with Pyongyang and is now attending the Talk for the first time since the inception of the talk.

"Pyongyang now has as much as 2500 tons of chemical weapons. It would be by far more fatal if Pyongyang decides to use it for terrorist acts. For this reason, its chemical weapons along with nuclear ones should be removed,” South Korea’s Defense Minister Han Min-goo said at his conversation with Ahmet Üzümcü, Director General of Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) at the venue.

Kim Hong-gyun, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs and David Sear, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia Pacific policy at Department of Defense diagnosed the current status of Pyongyang’s nuclear issues and countermeasures under the subject of “denuclearization of North Korea and international cooperation.” Vice president Douglas H. Paal for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Professor Shi Yinhong at the Renmin University of China, Professor Noboru Yamaguchi at International University of Japan and Deputy Director Fedor Voitolovskiy at Institute of World Economy and International Relations moderated the discussion.

Having sent its authorities to the very first Seoul Defense Talk since 2012, China sent only private experts to the talk this year. In doing so, China is said to be expressing its discontent over the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.



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