South Korea is looking to play a bigger role in the global effort to stop the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, a news report said yesterday, amid mounting tension with the North over the sinking of a Seoul warship.
South Korea plans to become a core member of the 95-nation Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) which allows signatories to stop ships suspected of carrying arms or their delivery systems, Yonhap news agency said.
“We have decided to join the Operational Experts Group [OEG],” an unnamed official in the South Korean foreign ministry said, referring to PSI’s 20-member steering committee.
Seoul believes signing up for the OEG in Japan in November will make sharing information on North Korea, a key seller of illegal weapons, easier, the report said.
The PSI, set up in 2003 by then -US president George W. Bush, carries out drills to intercept suspect vessels and is planning an exercise later this year.
South Korea’s participation last year was denounced by North Korea as a “declaration of war” against it.
Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its warships near the disputed Yellow Sea border with the loss of 46 lives on March 26.
The South has since announced a number of punitive actions, including cutting off trade. It also wants a strongly worded resolution or at least a presidential statement, from the UN Security Council.
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