APLN co-organized with the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) the 18th ROK-UN Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-proliferation Issues on November 13-14, in Seoul. APLN was in charge of organizing a session on “Denuclearization of Korean Peninsula and its ramification on the NPT regime.” Six APLN members, Nobuyasu Abe, Mely Caballero-Anthony, Bong-geun Jun, Carlos Sorreta, Ramesh Thakur and Tong Zhao, participated in as panelists.

After being first held in the form of international workshop in 2001 to mark the 10th anniversary of the ROK’s accession to the UN, the ROK-UN Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-proliferation Issues developed into a prominent forum for discussing disarmament and non-proliferation issues in the Asia-Pacific region in 2002. It brings together disarmament and non-proliferation experts from various sectors, including governments, international organizations, academia, and research institutes, at the end of the year to discuss key disarmament and non-proliferation issues of the year.

This year’s Conference titled, “Preparing for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference,” had in-depth discussions on prospects and building blocks for the 2020 NPT Review Conference, and ways to reinvigorate the review process. Participants also discussed regional non-proliferation issue related to the Korean Peninsula.