Brussels, 04/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 4 April, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said that she deplored the announcement by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to restart its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, including a 5 MW reactor, and the possible restart of uranium enrichment for military purposes. “This would be in clear violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions as well as of its commitment made in 2007 in the Six Party Talks to shut down these facilities”, she said. She again urged the North Korean leaders to re-engage in the dialogue with the international community, including in the framework of the Six Party Talks (the DPRK, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States) “to work towards lasting peace and security on a nuclear-free Korean peninsula”.
In Ashton's view, by breaking its international obligations and threatening the stability of the region, Pyongyang will “inevitably” provoke “an ever more united” response from the international community. “The DPRK should refrain from fuelling further tensions and show commitment to the agreed goal of complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, Ashton added.
Call for China's diplomacy. On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that “the current crisis has already gone too far”. “Nuclear threats are not a game”, he stated, saying that the DPRK should not “be on a collision course with the international community”. Convinced that “dialogue and negotiations” are “the only way to resolve the crisis”, Ban again stated his concern on Thursday at the rise in tension on the Korean peninsula provoked by the DPRK's very negative incendiary rhetoric. Ban, like France and Germany, has called on China to intervene in order to calm the situation in North Korea. Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign affairs minister, has said it is “worrying to note that the regime in Pyongyang is always determined to step up the tension”, and he has spoken of “the risk of things becoming out of control”. France has called for a meeting to be convened at the UN Security Council.
Before this announcement, the situation was already very tense between the DPRK, South Korea and the United States because of various threats from Pyongyang. In 2007, the DPRK had agreed to break off its nuclear activities in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees. However, in 2008 the DPRK withdrew from the Six Party Talks. (CG/transl.fl)