| Regarding the measures to examine North Korean cargo as part of the resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), the government revealed on November 7 that facilities for the detection of radioactive materials loaded aboard ships are already operating at a number of domestic ports.
At the briefing session which followed a discussion with U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph on the plans to fulfill the UNSC resolution on sanctions against North Korea at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) office building, a government official said, “The South Korean government has long been operating radioactive detection on ships, not targeting North Korea but aiming to prevent the expansion of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).”
The Korea Maritime and Port Administration and the Korea Customs Service are known to possess equipment to determine whether the containers of ships contain any radioactive materials.
“There are simplified meters which detect radioactive materials at the Korea Maritime and Port Administration and a number of other agencies, but there are no fixed facilities that can detect radioactive materials used for terrorism or that are being smuggled,” said a person related to Ministry of Science and Technology. “It is beyond our knowledge whether the government is separately running unrevealed facilities for the detection of radioactive materials against terrorism.”
On the same day, Foreign Policy Chief of MOFAT Park In-guk and Joseph also discussed the matter of the UNSC Sanctions Committee’s designating of privates and organizations that own financial assets and economic sources to be frozen in linkage with the NK nuclear weapons and the WMD.
U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns who visited South Korea with Joseph held a Korea-U.S. deputy-ministerial strategic talk with First Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myeong-hwan at the MOFAT office building on this day and discussed ways to lead North Korea to abolish nuclear arms through the six-party talks.
The government official said that the matter of expanding the participation of South Korea in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) was not discussed in detail at the Korea-U.S. conference this day.
It is said that the U.S. did not raise this matter actively, considering the fact that the Korean government is having difficulty in deciding whether to expand the participation into PSI due to pressure from the Uri Party.
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