BRUSSELS -- South Korea's top envoy in Amsterdam has been designated as the chairman of a conference of states that are members of a treaty banning chemical weapons to be held in The Hague in October next year, the South Korean Embassy said Tuesday.

South Korean Ambassador to the Netherlands Lee Yun-young will take up the chairmanship of the 23rd conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention for one year after he is officially selected to the position at the meeting.

The treaty, which entered into force in 1997 and currently has 192 member states, bans the development, production and possession of chemical weapons. A member state is required to declare its existing facilities for chemical weapons production and destroy them.