Global Security Newswire

Denmark, Lithuania and Azerbaijan intend to participate in next month's Global Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, coordinators for the high-profile international nonproliferation event said on Thursday (see GSN, Jan. 19).

Leaders and top delegates from 50 nations are now expected at the summit, which is scheduled for March 26-27.

"As the host country, South Korea officially invited the three nations ... to the second nuclear security summit in January and they have recently accepted the invitations," a senior organizer for the event told the Yonhap News Agency

None of the three nations participated in the first forum, which took place in Washington in 2010. That event drew participation from 47 nations and produced an agreement to work toward securing all of the world's vulnerable nuclear stockpiles within four years.

Next month's follow-on summit is expected to focus on reducing the civilian use of highly enriched uranium, among other security measures. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also slated to attend (Yonhap News Agency, Feb. 9).