S.Korea reiterates it has no nuclear weapon program

South Korea reiterated Saturday that it has no will to develop or possess nuclear weapons, saying its policy will remain unchanged.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, Science Minister Oh Myung and Unification Ministry Chung Dong-young made this stance at a joint press conference earlier Saturday in Seoul.

The move came a day before a five-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team was to arrive to look into South Korea's controversial past nuclear experiments that have aroused international concerns over its possible weapons ambitions.

Earlier this month, South Korea admitted two groups of scientists respectively conducted experiment of extracting small amount of plutonium in 1982 and separated 0.2 gram of uranium in 2000 both without informing local nuclear authorities.

Although Seoul government expressed several times these experiment, which restricted by the IAEA, do not mean South Korea has any nuclear weapons program, international community still hold skeptical view on the issue.

Uranium and plutonium are important materials in nuclear weapons.

"So far the government has never possessed or pursued any nuclear weapons program for military purposes," Chung Dong-young said at the televised news conference.

Chung reiterated Seoul's four-point peaceful nuclear policy, saying South Korea will keep intact its policy of nuclear transparency and increase international cooperation.

Chung also vowed that Seoul will honor international regimes on nuclear nonproliferation, but said it will expand the scope of peaceful use of nuclear activities.

Oh Myung said that the dispute should not dampen South Korea's peaceful nuclear energy development. Nuclear energy provides some 40 percent of South Korea's energy needs.

Moreover, Ban Ki-moon said that his government will fully cooperate with the ongoing IAEA inspections and make diplomatic efforts to ensure that lingering suspicion on Seoul's past undeclared nuclear activities will be ended in November.

The Vienna-based United Nations nuclear watchdog ended a meeting of its 35-nation board of governors on Friday after deciding to review the South Korean issue in the coming November.

At the opening session on Monday, the IAEA's Director-General Mohamed el Baradei had expressed "serious concern" about the SouthKorean experiments.

El Baradei also said he plans to visit Seoul on Oct. 4-7 to attend an international disarmament conference. On the sidelines of the conference, he plans to meet Seoul officials on the experiments.

Source:Xinhua