1. The Republic of Korea was chosen by consensus to chair the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) for the years 2016 and 2017 at the 29th MTCR Plenary Meeting held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from October 5 through 9.

◦ The ROK’s upcoming role as the chair country of the MTCR will mark the second of its kind following its service as such in 2004. Member states of the MTCR expressed their strong support for the ROK’s chairmanship, calling the country a reliable partner in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation.

2. The ROK will serve as the MTCR chair for a year after hosting a plenary meeting in the country in the second half of 2016. Over the following three years, the ROK, as a member of the MTCR Troika, which is composed of the previous, current and next chair countries, will carry out activities to bolster cooperation with non-members of the MTCR to prevent missile proliferation.

◦ The ROK will seek to prevent the proliferation and procurement of sensitive materials by having the member states of the MTCR actively share relevant information with one another, while encouraging them to thoroughly implement the control of missile-related exports under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

3. With the ROK Foreign Minister as the Chair of the IAEA International Conference on Nuclear Security in 2016 as well as the ROK as the Chair of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for the years 2016 and 2017 and the Chair of the MTCR in 2016 and 2017, the ROK government will lead efforts to strengthen the international non-proliferation regime and the multilateral export control regime.

◦ Furthermore, during the period of the ROK’s chairmanship, the ROK government is expected to contribute to the international efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) under the regimes for the nuclear security, nuclear non-proliferation and the control of missile-related exports.


* unofficial translation