On Thursday 7 September, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced that the EU would prepare new autonomous sanctions against Pyongyang.
"We have decided to potentially supplement the additional decisions of the United Nations Security Council with autonomous measures, so work will begin", Mogherini announced at the end of the first day of the Gymnich in Tallinn. She added that the ministers had also decided to support the additional economic sanctions of the UN and to ensure that the sanctions that are taken are fully implemented by third countries.
"Our intention is to add new European sanctions", Belgium's foreign minister Didier Reynders told a few journalists. "We are ready to go still further" than the possible sanctions that the UN could take, he added. Reynders also underlined the implementation of the sanctions within the EU and internationally, saying that if North Korea's tests continued it meant "there must be suppliers somewhere".
Germany's foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel meanwhile wanted sanctions to be taken so that North Korean ships might no longer moor in European ports, and so that the member states might no longer allow North Koreans to work in them. There are reportedly 300 North Korean workers in the EU. When asked about possible additional names being put on the list of people sanctioned due to the North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programme, and in particular Kim Jong-Un, Mogherini did not wish to respond.
Sanctioning in order to hold a dialogue
Like Reynders and France's minister Jean-Yves Le Drian earlier in the day, Mogherini said that the objective of the sanctions was to bring North Korea to the negotiating table. "It is important to remain in a capacity for dialogue, and perhaps the EU has a role to play here", Reynders said, adding that the EU had done this as part of the Iranian dossier. In his view, the fact that Europe is further away from the theatre of operations can give it a role to play. "The European position is to say that we are available", he said, adding that it was important to hold discussions with partners – Japan, the USA, China and Russia. "Any initiative needs to be taken in cooperation", he said.
Reynders also underlined the need for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty to enter fully into force (see EUROPE 11571). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)