South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have held bilateral working-level talks in Abu Dhabi on ways to promote atomic energy cooperation, the foreign ministry said Friday. 

Park Il, the ministry's director general for nonproliferation and nuclear affairs, and Nasser Al Nasseri, the CEO of Barakah One Company, met in the UAE capital on Thursday (local time), as they seek to hold a new session of the two countries' high-level talks on nuclear energy cooperation.

"The two sides shared the view that cooperation in the atomic energy sector is a core pillar of the South Korea-UAE special strategic partnership," the ministry said in a press release.

They agreed to hold the fourth session of the two countries' High-Level Consultation in South Korea at a mutually convenient time this year. The countries held the consultation in Seoul in 2018, in Abu Dhabi in 2019 and virtually last year.

Since South Korea won a $20 billion contract in 2009 to construct four nuclear reactors in Barakah, UAE, the two countries have been seeking to expand cooperation in nuclear and other sectors.

While in the country, Park visited the nuclear reactor construction site in Barakah and reaffirmed South Korea's government support for the two countries' atomic energy cooperation, the ministry said. (Yonhap)