SEOUL, (AFP) - South Korea has made a fresh pledge not to develop nuclear weapons as the UN nuclear watchdog was set to send a team of inspectors to look into the country's controversial past nuclear tests.
"The government hereby declares again that it has no will to develop or possess nuclear weapons," the National Security Council said in a statement.
"The government will stick to the principle of nuclear transparency and step up international cooperation," it said in a four-point statement.
The statement followed a meeting of the National Security Council, chaired by Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young. The meeting also drew together cabinet ministers in charge of foreign affairs, defence, science and technology, and intelligence.
Chung read the statement at a nationally televised press conference, also attended by other cabinet ministers.
It also said the government will continue to honor international regulations aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation.
"The government, while seeking to raise international trust and enhance transparency (in South Korea's nuclear activities), will ... expand the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," the statement said.
It said the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is a "very important policy goal" for South Korea, which relies on nuclear power for some 40 percent of its energy need.
Science and Technology Minister Oh Myung told journalists that the dispute should not dampen South Korea's peaceful nuclear energy development.
The NSC meeting took place a day before a team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was to arrive to investigate South Korea's past nuclear experiments.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed Friday in Vienna that the body was embarking on a new round of inspections in South Korea into the secret manufacture of small amounts of potentially bomb-grade enriched uranium and plutonium.
"We are getting very active and good cooperation on the part of the Republic of Korea," ElBaradei told reporters.
ElBaradei said Monday that 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of uranium metal was produced in undeclared conversion activities in the early 1980s and a small amount of this was used in 2000 to produce the enriched uranium.
ElBaradei expressed "serious concern" about the activities.
In Seoul, the science ministry said scientists produced about 150 kilograms of uranium metal in 1982 from phosphate ore at three undeclared facilities. Uranium metal can be used as nuclear fuel or as a radiation shield.
The facilities were dismantled after scientists used 3.5 kilograms of the uranium metal in 2000, it said, adding South Korea still keeps 134 kilograms in storage.
The ministry attributed the loss of the remaining 12.5 kilograms to natural wastage.
It asserted the experiments were purely for academic research but did not clarify why the production of uranium metal was undeclared.
South Korea is a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has ratified the Additional Protocol to the NPT that allows for wider IAEA inspections.