President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev ( right ) speaks as United Nations Secretary - General Antonio Guterres listens in the UN Security Council on Thursday . ( AP / Yonhap ) Having voluntarily renounced its atomic arsenal in 1991 , Kazakhstan urges North Korea to abandon its nuclear aspirations and capitalizes on its nonpermanent membership in the United Nations Security Council for a world free of weapons of mass destruction , according to the Kazakh Embassy in Seoul . Kazakhstan assumed the presidency of the supreme body of five permanent members -- nuclear powers the United States , Russia , China , Great Britain and France -- and 10 nonpermanent members in January . Its 2017 - 18 seat on the UNSC -- the world ’ s highest decision - making body exclusively dealing with matters of peace and security -- as the first Central Asian member is the culmination of six years of strenuous diplomacy , said Anuar Ayazbekov , director of Kazakhstan ’ s Institute of Diplomacy at the Academy of Public Administration , in an article for the Diplomat . Kazakhstan has a seven - point agenda on the UNSC : creating a world free of nuclear weapons ; preventing and ending military confrontations on regional and global levels ; making Central Asia a regional model for peace , security , cooperation and development ; establishing peace and security in Africa ; fighting international terrorism and violent extremism ; advancing the nexus between security and development ; and adapting the UN system to the 21 st century ’ s needs . “ Kazakhstan has a moral right to talk to nations that are seeking nuclear weapons , ” said Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev during a summit with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Jan . 16 . Nazarbayev also chaired a high - level debate among the UNSC members on nonproliferation and confidence - building measures Thursday . “ That is why we are talking to Iran . This is the way we will talk to North Korea , ” the Kazakhstani president stressed . “ The issue of North Korea could be solved by combining the efforts of the US , China and Russia . And Kazakhstan , being a close neighbor of Russia , of course , is following very closely the dynamics in the US - Russia relations , which have soured . ” Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev ( left ) shakes hands with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Jan . 16 . ( EPA ) During the UNSC session on Thursday , UN Secretary - General Antonio Guterres said the situation on the Korean Peninsula was “ the most tense and dangerous peace and security challenge in the world today . ” “ In such a geopolitical context , ” he added , “ confidence - building measures that support arms control , nonproliferation and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction are extremely important . ”   On Aug . 29 , 1991 , Kazakhstan voluntarily closed down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site -- a primary experiment ground for the Soviet Union ’ s atomic arsenal -- and terminated 1 , 400 nuclear warheads , then the world ’ s fourth - largest atomic arsenal . The unprecedented move led nuclear powers to observe a moratorium on nuclear tests and adopt the Comprehensive Nuclear - Test - Ban Treaty . It also encouraged different regions of the world to create nuclear weapons - free zones , according to Kazakhstan ’ s Permanent Mission to the UN . “ It takes tact and will to assert Kazakhstan ’ s position on global matters such as the Syrian crisis or North Korea ’ s nuclear program without estranging other UNSC members , particularly the permanent ones , ” Ayazbekov noted . “ The so - called ‘ multivector foreign policy ’ of Kazakhstan directly translates into its vote in favor of or against UNSC resolutions . Astana is not leaning toward either pro - Russian or pro - Western orientation . ” By advocating a world free of the massively deadly weapons since 1991 , Astana has paved the way for the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons , which passed in the UN on July 7 last year , say analysts . Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov speaks in the United Nations Security Council , Friday , Jan . 19 , 2018 . ( AP / Yonhap ) “ The president once remarked to me , ‘( The decision to get rid of nuclear weapons ) was the best thing I ever did for our young country , ’” Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov told the UN General Assembly on Sept . 21 last year .   During the 70 th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2015 , Nazarbayev called on the international community to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons by 2045 -- the international organization ’ s centenary anniversary . At the initiative of Kazakhstan , the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration on the Achievement of a Nuclear - Weapon - Free World on Dec . 7 , 2015 . Aside from championing nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation , Kazakhstan has also played the role of an honest broker in international conflicts , mediating in the Iranian nuclear deal , Russia - Turkey rift , Minsk Protocol for resolving crises in eastern Ukraine , and the Syrian peace talks through the Astana Process , a track parallel to the UN - led , Geneva - based negotiations . Astana uses its UNSC seat to advance the security and development interests of Central Asia , taking a regional approach and agenda to transnational issues and threats , Kazakhstani Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko told The Korea Herald in Astana in late August last year . By Joel Lee ( joel @ heraldcorp . com ) [ 코리아 헤럴드 ] [ K - POP HERALD ] [ 페이스북 ] <ⓒ KoreaHerald ( www . koreaherald . com ) 무단 전재 및 재 배포 금지 >