Brussels, 03/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - During the evening of Wednesday 2 March, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced that the EU would “swiftly transpose” Resolution 2270 (2016) on North Korea, adopted by the United Nations Security Council earlier that day, “into EU law”. She added that the EU “will consider whether additional autonomous restrictive measures are called for” to complement this UN resolution.
Resolution 2270 (2016) was adopted in response to the actions of North Korea on 6 January (see EUROPE 11462) and 7 February (see EUROPE 11485), and adds considerably to the sanctions already imposed on Pyongyang. The UN member countries will have to inspect all goods from and to North Korea and will have to ban ships suspected of transporting illegal cargoes to North Korea from stopping over in their ports. Any aircraft suspected of transporting contraband goods to North Korea will also have to be blocked. In addition, the resolution imposes new restrictions on North Korean exports and strengthens the current banking restrictions. Furthermore, 16 new people and 12 additional entities, including the North Korean space agency, have had sanctions imposed on them due to their involvement in developing nuclear and ballistic weapons.
In her press release, Mogherini underlines that the unanimous approval of the resolution by the UN Security Council was a “clear expression of the unity and resolve of the international community to uphold the global non-proliferation regime and to target North Korea's illegal nuclear, WMD and ballistic missile programmes and its ability to finance them”.
Stating that the actions of North Korea at the start of the year were “a grave threat to international peace and security in the region and beyond”, Mogherini once again called on Pyongyang to honour all its international obligations. “The North Korean government needs to re-engage in a credible and meaningful way with the international community, in particular in the framework of the Six-Party Talks”, Mogherini stated, as she has so many times before. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)