Nazarbayev proposes N Korea to use its denuclearization model - Yonhap

ASTANA. KAZINFORM President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is on a state visit to South Korea, proposed North Korea to apply its denuclearization model "which Kazakhstan has crafted over the last 25 years to build a nuclear-weapon-free world." The Kazakh Leader said it in an interview with Korean Yonhap News Agency.

Nazarbayev invited also Korean businessmen to join its investment projects and noted that Kazakhstan is ready to support them.

"As a frontrunner in the international anti-nuclear campaign and for the nonproliferation regime, and as a chair of the Hague Code of Conduct against ballistic missile proliferation (HCOC) enacted in 2002, Kazakhstan absolutely supports the construction of a world free from nuclear arms," the President said.

According to him, he supports Seoul's policy to peacefully settle the North's nuclear issue.

Kazakhstan possessed some 1,400 strategic nuclear weapons along with a large number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombers, which put the country among the world's top nuclear powers.

So, the decision on denuclearization became a reason for the country's rapid economic growth - "in stark contrast with the North that has been sticking to its nuclear development as a key security guarantor despite its threadbare economy," the article reads.

As for economic cooperation, N.Nazarbayev expressed hope that South Korean companies would join 10 business projects worth approximately $2.5bln in various spheres, like medicine, information and technology, steel-making.

"South Korea's economy and Kazakhstan's economy are not in a competition, but in a complementary relationship," he stressed.    

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