Lee heads for New York for U.N. General Assembly, nuclear safety meeting

SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak left for New York on Tuesday to address the U.N. General Assembly on a series of global issues, including how to reform the Security Council, and to make a case for atomic energy during a special nuclear safety meeting.
Lee's attendance at the General Assembly, for the second time since 2009, comes as South Korea marks the 20th anniversary of its accession to the United Nations. In addition, Korean-born U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was re-elected for a second term earlier this year.
On the sidelines of his three-day visit to New York, Lee will hold bilateral meetings with new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Peru's new President Ollanta Humala. Lee will then head to Seattle for a two-day visit that includes a meeting with Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
After arriving in New York on Tuesday, Lee will receive this year's World Statesman Award by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation for his contribution to world peace, democracy and human rights. Previous recipients include former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, German Prime Minister Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
On Wednesday, Lee will address the U.N. General Assembly about South Korea's positions on an array of key issues that the U.N. has been focusing on, such as international peace, democracy, human rights, development gaps, green growth and U.N. reform, officials said.
"The U.N. General Assembly is an important stage of multilateral diplomacy," a senior presidential official said on customary condition of anonymity. "It will be an opportunity for us to state our positions on the U.N.'s major agenda items."
Regarding U.N. reform, Lee plans to stress Seoul's long-standing position that the 15-seat Security Council should increase its non-permanent members to make the top global security body more democratic, more representative of other U.N. members and more responsible, officials said.
That position, shared by middle-power countries like Italy, Mexico and Spain, runs counter to a campaign by Japan, India, Germany and Brazil to join the Security Council as permanent members. The council's five current permanent members are the United States, Britain, China, Russia and France.
Officials said the issue is unlikely to see any consensus soon.
Also scheduled for Wednesday is a meeting with Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, and a summit with Japan's Prime Minister Noda. Noda took office late last month as Japan's sixth leader in five years.
On Thursday, Lee will attend a special high-level meeting on nuclear safety that U.N. Secretary-General Ban organized to draw lessons from Japan's nuclear disaster. Lee's keynote speech will focus on stressing the inevitability of expanding atomic energy to battle climate change, officials said.
Atomic power generation has surfaced as a hot global issue after massive radiation leaks at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was struck by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, in the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Critics have called for shutting down atomic power plants.
"Our position is that the Fukushima accident should not serve as a reason for abandoning atomic power generation and that we should further strengthen nuclear safety and use atomic power as a key means and option to deal with climate change," the presidential official said.
"We plan to deliver a message that we cannot meet rising energy demand and deal with climate change only with renewable energy and that atomic energy is inevitable for the time being in achieving sustainable growth and should be expanded further while strengthening safety," he said.
Lee also plans to brief participants on next year's Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul.
South Korea is a global atomic energy power that relies on nuclear power plants for about 40 percent of its electricity needs. The country has also been trying to export nuclear power plants since Korean firms won a massive contract in late 2009 to build four atomic power plants in the United Arab Emirates.
Later Thursday, Lee will hold summit talks with Peruvian President Humala.
In Seattle, Lee will meet with South Korean residents Thursday evening and with Bill Gates on Friday.
Officials said that Lee has a personal relationship with Gates and the Bill Gates Foundation is a big contributor to the Seoul-based International Vaccine Institute (IVI).
Lee will leave Seattle on Friday and arrive home Saturday.