World leaders will converge on Seoul later this month for a nuclear security summit with more than 10 nations poised to agree to eliminate tens of tons of weapons-grade enriched uranium, enough for thousands of atomic bombs, a senior Seoul official with information on the summit said Tuesday.
Top leaders from 53 nations as well as four international organizations, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, will attend the March 26-27 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, which aims to bolster international safeguards and prevent nuclear terrorism.
Since the first summit initiated by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2010 in Washington, progress has been piled up on efforts to secure vulnerable nuclear materials worldwide.
Over the past two years, more than 10 nations, including Australia and Argentina, got rid of some 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, which are enough nuclear material to make approximately 16 nuclear weapons.
The U.S. and Russia, the world's two largest nuclear superpowers, also eliminated seven tons and 48 tons of highly enriched uranium each, according to the summit's organizing committee.
The Seoul summit will serve as a "stepping stone" to translate the political will generated at the Washington summit into action, while laying a cornerstone for attaining key nuclear security goals in the mid- and long-term, the official said.
Negotiators, or "sherpas" from the 53 nations will hold their final meeting in Seoul on March 23 and fix agenda for the Seoul summit and the text of a so-called "Seoul Communique" that will be announced at the end of the summit.
"Sherpas have already agreed on the Seoul Communique that will pledge to minimize the civilian use of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium," said the official said on the condition of anonymity, adding the text will include "practical visions and concrete actions" on ways to promote global cooperation and enhance measures for nuclear materials and facilities from being exploited by terrorists.
"Also, at least 10 more nations will separately pledge to eliminate their stocks of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium," the official said.
"In the wake of the Seoul summit, achievements are expected to get rid of nuclear materials to make thousands of nuclear weapons," he said.
According to experts, the most basic nuclear weapon can be produced with a mere 25kg of highly enriched uranium or 8kg of plutonium. Although it is very difficult to build a sophisticated nuclear weapon, it is not too difficult to produce a basic weapon using nuclear materials, they said.
Seoul officials said one of the key topics at the Seoul summit would be how to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants.
Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan last March, which followed a giant earthquake and tsunami that shut down the nuclear plant's cooling systems, atomic safety has been in sharp focus.
The crisis that engulfed the Fukushima plant, the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years, prompted countries with nuclear power plants to review the safety of atomic energy and the extent of potential damage in the event of a terrorist attack.
The upcoming summit is not aimed at dealing with nuclear weapons programs by North Korea and Iran, but Seoul officials have said that the North Korean nuclear issue can be discussed bilaterally on the sidelines of the summit.
Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said, "North Korea's nuclear issue is not on the agenda of the Seoul summit, but the issue can be discussed bilaterally outside the summit because all member countries of the six-party talks except North Korea will be attending.
"The Nuclear Security Summit pursues the minimum use of nuclear materials such as highly enriched uranium and plutonium. So, it can deliver a message to North Korea that it should give up such materials," Kim said.
Except North Korea, leaders of all member countries involved in the six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear drive will attend the Seoul summit. The multilateral talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, have been stalled since late 2008.
Seoul officials said that the Netherlands has agreed to host the third Nuclear Security Summit in 2014. At the Seoul summit, South Korea will likely formally name the Netherlands as the host for the next summit. (Yonhap)