The Republic of Korea was actively involved in the process to develop a Political Declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and was among the first group of states to endorse the Political Declaration in Dublin in November 2022.
The Republic of Korea regularly delivered statements to the consultations towards a Political Declaration. At the meeting in March 2021, it supported Sweden’s suggestion to add “in accordance with IHL” to Section 3.3 of the Political Declaration draft. 1 At the fourth round of consultations in April 2022, the Republic of Korea said it had difficulty in fully supporting the draft because it was too vague and supported the suggestion to include a qualifier such as “indiscriminate” or “unlawful” before explosive weapons in populated areas in the title and relevant parts of the text. 2 It also echoed Human Rights Watch’s and Sweden’s suggestion to delete “critically” in “people critically injured” in paragraph 4.4 and said that paragraph 4.2 on data collection should be balanced with military and security concerns. 3 During the fifth round of consultations in June 2022, the Republic of Korea thanked the government of Ireland and said that the text was well-balanced. 4 At the Dublin Conference, the Republic of Korea said it recognizes the harm caused by explosive weapons in populated areas and shared the concerns on the indirect effects, including displacement. It expressed support for the implementation of the Declaration. 5
The Republic of Korea attended the first international implementation conference on the Political Declaration in Oslo, Norway in April 2024, and the second implementation conference in San Jose, Costa Rica in November 2025.
Statements and positions
The Republic of Korea has also spoken on explosive weapons in populated areas in multilateral forums. At the 2025 UN Security Council open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict it called on the Security Council to “take concrete steps to curb the use of explosive weapons in populated areas”, emphasising that recently “large-scale civilian casualties have resulted both directly and indirectly from the use of explosive weapons in urban areas”, citing the destructing of civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Sudan. 6 Previously, during the August 2013 open debate on protection of civilians, it called for avoiding the use of explosive weapons with wide area impact in densely populated areas. 7 At the 2022 Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), the Republic of Korea said that the Declaration is a meaningful step forward and expressed appreciation for the work of Ireland in this regard. 8