By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter


Seoul will send a delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna next week, where the nuclear watchdog’s board of governors will try to draw a conclusion to the past laboratory tests that South Korea had ``failed to report.’’

Led by Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin, the delegation will comprise about 15 officials, including those from the Science and Technology Ministry and the National Security Council, according to the government Friday.

On a crucial mission of stopping the case from being brought to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), the delegates will meet officials from the 35 member states of the IAEA board of governors to persuade them that South Korea is ``clean-handed.’’

The IAEA, a U.N. affiliate, is due to convene a board meeting on Nov. 25 to decide on whether South Korea’s case should be referred to the UNSC. Government officials said the ``chances are fifty-fifty,’’ though they don’t believe it should be.

An IAEA report, sent to its member nations last week, stated it was a matter of ``serious concern’’ that Seoul ``failed to report’’ the nuclear-related experiments, conducted in 1982 and 2000, though there was no such wording as ``noncompliance’’ or ``violation.’’

However, the atomic agency acknowledged the tests were ``laboratory-scale’’ ones, unrelated to any weapons development program, while praising South Korea’s giving ``active cooperation’’ to IAEA inspectors and taking ``corrective measures’’ thereafter.

The eight-page report, which will be officially presented to the Nov. 25 session, is a result of the IAEA’s three on-site inspections of the previous two months following the revelation in August of the past experiments. Seoul admitted that a group of unauthorized scientists conducted two isolated tests in 1982 and 2000, which both produced small amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium, the main ingredients of atomic weapons.

So far, there had been only five nations whose cases were discussed by the IAEA board of governors: North Korea, Iraq, Romania, Libya and Iran. South Korea has become the first nation on the list among those with advanced atomic technology.

Four of the five cases, except the ongoing Iranian case, were referred to the UNSC and now the South Korean case is at a crossroads. Officials say there is the possibility that South Korea will follow the Romanian case, which similar to South Korea’s in that the nation failed to properly report its past nuclear activities.

``But our case is different even from the Romanian case,’’ a Seoul official said, in response to the suggestion by some U.S. officials that the case should be referred to the UNSC at least for the purpose of simply providing relevant information.

``South Korea has the sixth largest civilian nuclear industry in the world, where 40 percent of its electricity comes from atomic power plants. These mistakes were made in a nation where vigorous nuclear activities are taking place,’’ he argued. ``It would set a good precedent for the non-proliferation effort itself if the IAEA decides not to refer South Korea, which has actively cooperated for nuclear transparency, to the UNSC.’’

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr