Delegates from 14 Asian and Pacific countries have agreed to actively seek to make the Korean Peninsula a nuclear-free region and to check the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

In a senior officials' meeting in Asia on countering the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the delegates adopted a statement in the name of the meeting's chairman, in which they stated that the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would be conducive to the peace and stability of the entire Asia and Pacific region.

The statement also said that a substantive and verifiable means must be sought after in order to ensure that the Korean Peninsula becomes and remains a permanently nuclear-free region.