Second Vice Foreign Minister Oh Young-ju met with Suhail Al-Mazrouei, the UAE minister of energy and industry, at the 5th High-Level Consultation on Nuclear Cooperation in Seoul to discuss bilateral nuclear cooperation, the first such in-person meeting to be held in four years.
The two sides agreed to work on developing a "cooperation model" for exporting nuclear reactors to a third country based on Seoul's successful construction of four nuclear reactors in Barakah, located 270 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi.
They also agreed to seek new areas for cooperation, including in the small modular reactor sector.
In 2018, the two countries launched a high-level dialogue channel on nuclear cooperation to deal with joint efforts to export nuclear reactors to a third country, nuclear security, safety and regulation, and research and development.
The current Yoon Suk Yeol administration, which launched in May last year, has been actively pushing to revive the country's nuclear energy industry, reversing the former government's nuclear phase-out policy.
South Korea and the United Arab Emirates hold high-level consultations on nuclear cooperation at a Seoul hotel on July 28, 2023. (Yonhap)
