On Friday 19 May, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini offered the expertise gained during the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme to find a solution to the North Korean nuclear issues.
"The EU's experience in the area [of denuclearisation] – especially from the negotiations that we conducted on the Iranian nuclear programme – is available" for the denuclearisation process of the Korean peninsula and the possibilities of the EU's participation in an agreement can "be explored further in the future", she said after a meeting with Cho Yoon Je, the special envoy of South Korea's president. Mogherini stated that the specific skills and experience that the EU had developed on the nuclear non-proliferation programme were "of course" available for the whole international community.
She announced that she had met Cho Yoon Je in order to step up the work that the EU and South Korea can do together to try and resolve the North Korean issue, "by trying to calm the tension", by continuing to implement sanctions against Pyongyang, "but also, and mainly, by trying to open a political channel for the negotiations". "We share the same vision that any risk of military escalation in and around the Korean peninsula should be avoided. This is the number one priority at the moment", she said, adding that she had discussed the issue with China, Russia and India.
In a joint press release, Mogherini and European Council President Donald Tusk, who also met the Korean special envoy, stated that the EU was ready "to increase its work, in full coordination with the Republic of Korea and the international community, to de-escalate tensions and peacefully denuclearise the Korean peninsula". "The European Union calls upon North Korea to engage in a credible and meaningful dialogue with the international community and is ready to support such dialogue", the press release adds. Tusk also spoke to the Korean president, agreeing to work together to consolidate the strategic partnership and to meet at the G20 summit in Hamburg in July. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)