Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Insun attended the High-Level Segment of the 2024 Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva on February 26 and shared the Korean government’s position on the disarmament and nonproliferation issues.

Vice Minister Kang expressed concern over setbacks to the global nonproliferation efforts including Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its unilateral suspension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), and its decision to withdraw the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The Vice Minister went on to urge the five nuclear-weapon states (P5) -- the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia -- to actively re-engage in bilateral and multilateral dialogues to ensure transparency and rebuild mutual trust. In addition, she spoke of key initiatives in which Korea is actively taking part to strengthen the international disarmament and non-proliferation regime.

In particular, Vice Minister Kang stressed that the international community should respond to the rapid advancement of emerging technologies, highlighting the urgent need to establish international norms on artificial intelligence (AI) in the military domain. On that note, she shared Korea’s leading efforts to that end, such as its plan to host the second Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) Summit in Seoul this year following the first of its kind held in The Hague, the Netherlands, in February 2023.

Furthermore, Vice Minister Kang pointed out that the DPRK’s decades-long obsession with nuclear and missile programs in flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions continues to pose an existential threat to the global disarmament and nonproliferation regime. She urged the DPRK to return to dialogues and abandon all weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner.

Vice Minister Kang, highlighting the paramount importance of the CD’s role for realizing the shared vision of international peace and security, underscored that Member States should renew their political will and reaffirm their commitment to the revitalization of the CD.