A Chinese disarmament expert has called for the international community to involve North Korea in nuclear safety and security talks.

Li Hong, secretary general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told media ahead of the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit that North Korea is rather secluded from the international community and its nuclear security and nuclear safety has caused concerns in the international community.

The CACD is an NGO specializing in research and exchanges on arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation and is China’s most powerful civil group on these issues.

Li reported that the majority of experts at a recent nuclear security symposium held in Seoul ahead of the summit had agreed that North Korea should be integrated with international discourse. 

“The consensus is that (DPRK) nuclear security and safety is also nuclear security and safety for all. If (the DPRK) is not involved in the international safety and security process that is not a solution,” he said, adding that no clear way had yet been found to engage Pyongyang.

Satellite images taken by a U.S. organization this February showed that the communist state had made progress on building the light-water reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, though Pyongyang has since pledged to suspend its nuclear programs in return for U.S. food aid. North Korea says it wants the reactor to generate electricity, but some experts fear it could be designed to produce plutonium for weapons.

But Li and Chinese Foreign Ministry counselor Zhang Jianmin refused to comment on Pyongyang’s plan to launch a satellite next month.

Pyongyang has kept up a warlike rhetoric regarding the Seoul summit, and announced that it would launch a satellite into orbit between April 12 and 16 to celebrate the 100th year since the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung.

It has transported a rocket to a launch facility in the northeastern part of the country, with the U.S. threatening to suspend 240,000 tons of promised aid if it is launched. The international community, including China, has called on Pyongyang to cancel its plan, as it breaches U.N. Security Council resolutions banning the testing and use of ballistic missiles.

Li said that China was doing well in reducing its use of highly enriched uranium and could offer technical support to other countries in this field.

Mainland China has 14 nuclear power reactors in operation, and more than 25 under construction, with work planned to start on more soon.

Li also expressed concerns over the safety of new nuclear power stations in rural inland China, where he thought that environmental factors such as river courses could change over decades. But he stressed he was not an expert on the issue, and that all his comments were his personal opinion.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is also in Seoul for the summit running this Monday and Tuesday.

By Kirsty Taylor (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)