Vietnamese PM to attend Seoul Nuclear Summit

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will lead a Vietnamese government delegation to join the second Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul from March 26-27, said foreign ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi at a press conference here on Thursday. Nghi said Dung will also pay an official visit to the South Korea from March 28-29, at the invitation of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. "Being an active and responsible member of the international community, Vietnam will attend the summit to reaffirm its policy in using the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and keeping nuclear safety and security," Nghi said, adding that Vietnam wants to enhance further international cooperation in this field. Earlier this month, South Korean ambassador to Vietnam Ha Chan Ho told a press briefing in Hanoi that Vietnam and South Korea will discuss the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in Vietnam. Officials of the two nations will meet over the plan when the Vietnamese PM attends the summit in Seoul. However, the ambassador said it is too soon to talk about the investment scale and location of the plant. Under the nuclear power development plan until 2030, Vietnam will build facilities in eight locations in the central region. Russia will build Vietnam's first nuclear power plant in the central coast province of Ninh Thuan. The Ninh Thuan 1 facility is planned to start power generation in 2020. Meanwhile, Japan is studying the second nuclear power plant in the same province, Ninh Thuan 2.