1. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha attended the High-Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) for the second consecutive year on the morning of February 25 (local time). In the meeting, she explained the efforts made so far to achieve complete denuclearization and to establish a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, and expressed hope for further progress. She also talked about the importance of the international disarmament and non-proliferation regime in the changing global security environment, and said that the Republic of Korea was willing to make contributions in the area.

o At the High-Level Segment, ministerial- and vice ministerial-level officials from about 30 countries, including UN Secretary-General Guterres, delivered speeches on international disarmament and non-proliferation issues.

2. Minister Kang said that the Korean Peninsula, which had been an epicenter of global instability for many decades, has now become a source of hope, and that while her remark on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea last year at the CD expressed cautious hope, this year, she brought a message of progress and expectation.

o She also expected the second United States-DPRK summit, to be held in two days, to be an important milestone in efforts to achieve complete denuclearization and establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

3. In addition, Minister Kang stressed the need to make efforts to reinvigorate the CD in the current global environment where military spending has reached its highest peak since the end of the Cold War, an erosion of consensus on disarmament norms is witnessed, and new security threats are emerging.

o Minister Kang said that the CD, which made key treaties serving as the foundation for the disarmament and non-proliferation regime, including the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), needs to use its accumulated institutional capabilities as the only multilateral disarmament negotiating forum.

o She also expressed hope that the CD would continue to be mindful of the implications of disarmament for the Sustainable Development Goals, as laid out in the UN Secretary-General’s Agenda for Disarmament, and said that the ROK government would support the Secretary-General’s efforts, including through the annual ROK-UN Disarmament and Nonproliferation Conference.

* unofficial translation