Global Security Newswire

A minimum of 10 additional countries are anticipated to promise at the upcoming Global Nuclear Security Summit in South Korea to relinquish their holdings of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium and highly enriched uranium, the Yonhap News Agency reported on Thursday (see GSN, Feb. 9).

"The participating nations have already agreed on a summit communique that will pledge to minimize the civilian use of highly enriched uranium and plutonium," according to an unidentified coordinator for the March 26-27 event..

"Also, at least 10 more nations will separately pledge to eliminate their stocks of highly enriched uranium and plutonium," the organizer continued. Roughly 18 governments agreed to such moves at the 2010 summit in Washington, the source said.

The Seoul summit is expected to involve leaders from 50 countries, an increase from the 47 nations that participated in the Washington meeting.

A joint statement to be issued at next month's high-profile gathering -- the Seoul Communique -- is to spell out additional steps for securing nuclear stockpiles against feared acquisition by terrorists (Yonhap News Agency, Feb. 16).