SEOUL -- South Korea on Thursday called for international defense cooperation to tackle global security threats that are increasingly diversifying.

South Korean vice Defense Minister Baek Seungjoo said at the first session of the Seoul Defense Dialogue (SDD) that it is urgently needed for defense authorities to make concerted efforts to address a variety of comprehensive security threats that damage world peace.

Citing natural disaster, health security, anti-terrorism and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Baek said that there are inseparable relations between peace and stability in a specific region and a country, and world peace and stability.

The SDD, which was launched in 2012, is a South Korea-hosted vice ministerial-level regional security forum. The three-day event kicked off here on Wednesday.

This year's conference brought together about 250 defense officials and private security experts from 30 countries, including China, the United States and Japan, and four international agencies such as the United Nations and the European Union.

Discussions will be held in three sessions on the Korean unification and global security, maritime crisis in East Asia and its management, and cyber protection and defense cooperation, respectively.

The vice minister said that peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula can be likened to an easily-breaking bowl as seen in the recently escalating military tensions between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

His comments were in line with South Korean President Park Geun- hye's keynote speech made Wednesday, which said that the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas will be very important for world peace and harmony.

Park has stressed that the reunified Korean Peninsula will contribute to peace and stability in the region and the world as well as on the peninsula, calling for international cooperation for peace and stability on the peninsula.