ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- South Korea agreed Monday to purchase an annual amount of up to 1,100 tons of uranium ore from Kazakhstan, local media said.
The agreement was signed in Astana, the Kazakh capital, during Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's state visit.
Kazakhstan will deliver the uranium ore over the next 30 years, the South Korean Yonhap news agency said. South Korea and Kazakhstan, according to the agency, will jointly develop uranium mines in southern Kazakhstan to secure the supply.
The uranium will be used at South Korean nuclear power stations, the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency said.
Roh Moo-hyun was quoted by Interfax-Kazakhstan as saying he and his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, support the aspiration for expanding cooperation in various areas, including nuclear-power engineering.
The two countries have great prospects for cooperation in the area of nuclear chemistry and nuclear physics, Roh said.
The Kazatomprom national atomic company of Kazakhstan produced about 3,250 tons of uranium in 2003, compared with about 3,000 tons in 2002, Interfax-Kazakhstan said.
