1. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Insun attended the High-Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva on Monday, February 24 (local time), and shared the Korean government’s position on disarmament and non-proliferation issues.

* The Conference on Disarmament, established in 1979, is the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community. It has negotiated major multilateral agreements on disarmament and non-proliferation such as the Outer Space Treaty, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).  

2. In her keynote speech delivered on the third anniversary of Russia's war against Ukraine, Vice Minister Kang expressed concern about the deteriorating international security environment and the erosion of international disarmament and non-proliferation norms. Vice Minister Kang urged the five nuclear-weapon states (P5: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia) to engage in bilateral and multilateral dialogues to enhance transparency and mutual trust. In addition, she shared the ROK's various activities to strengthen the international disarmament and non-proliferation regime, including the “Youth and Disarmament” initiative.

3. In particular, with regard to emerging technologies such as AI, Vice Minister Kang emphasized that, considering their implications for international peace and security, it is necessary to establish international norms and to strengthen cooperation in the field. On that note, she highlighted the ROK’s leading efforts regarding the responsible use of AI in the military domain, including holding the second REAIM* Summit in Seoul last year and leading, together with the Netherlands, the adoption of the resolution titled “Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain and Its Implications on International Peace and Security” by the UN General Assembly First Committee, the first resolution to be adopted by the UN on this issue.

* REAIM: Responsible AI in the Military Domain

4. Additionally, Vice Minister Kang pointed out that North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons and missile programs in contradiction of the international community’s joint efforts to promote peace and in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions. She called on North Korea to abandon all its weapons of mass destruction and missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and to return to denuclearization dialogue. She further stressed that North Korea has been supplying weapons and ballistic missiles to Russia and has dispatched over 11,000 troops, sacrificing them as cannon fodder for the regime. She reiterated that such illicit actions by North Korea pose a grave security threat to the entire international community.

5. Vice Minister Kang stressed the importance of the Conference on Disarmament — the world's single multilateral negotiating forum on disarmament — amid the grave international security landscape, and called for the international community's concerted efforts to revitalize the CD.