On Friday 9 September, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, condemned the latest nuclear test carried out by North Korea earlier in the day.
In a press release, Mogherini says: "We look forward to the UN Security Council addressing the matter and take a firm and effective stand. We will closely coordinate our action with its decisions". The United States and Russia have announced that they will send the question to the UN. The EU’s chief diplomat said she had been in contact with Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), and the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea, Yun Byung-se. North Korea has already been subject to a raft of sanctions from the United Nations and autonomous restrictions levied by the European Union.
In the press release, Mogherini said this fifth nuclear test was "another direct violation of North Korea’s international obligations not to produce or test nuclear weapons, as determined by multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and a grave threat to the peace and security of the entire region and beyond. The path that North Korea has to follow is clear and there is no alternative: North Korea must abide by its obligations and abandon all its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner." Yet again, Mogherini called on Pyongyang "to re-engage in a credible and meaningful dialogue with the international community, in particular in the framework of the Six-Party Talks (Ed: North Korea, South Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan) and to cease this illegal and extremely dangerous behaviour". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)