On Tuesday 13 March, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said that the unity of the international community in efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula would be key to the success or failure of these efforts.
A North Korea-South Korea summit and a North Korea-United States summit will take place in the spring (see EUROPE 11978).
"The unity of the international community will be an essential factor to determine whether we collectively succeed or fail", Mogherini said in a statement to the European Parliament plenary. "The situation in the Korean peninsula could turn from a potential catastrophe into a demonstration of the power of multilateral diplomacy", she said.
"Our objective is, has always been and remains to help open the political path for a peaceful, negotiated solution of the North Korean nuclear issue" – an objective that can be achieved with wisdom, unity and determination, as demonstrated with the EU's international partners over the past few months, Mogherini added.
She discussed the work of the EU and member states to this effect. Noting that the EU's policy of sanctions had the aim of helping pave the political way for a peaceful, negotiated solution to the North Korea nuclear issue, she said that this was why the EU "encouraged and supported these new high-level diplomatic initiatives". "We are ready to do our part, as we always have done", she said, adding that for months and years, the EU had been working to avoid the nightmare scenario of a nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.
On Monday 19 March, EU foreign ministers will meet their South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, to discuss the path to follow and how the EU can continue to support peace efforts, Mogherini stated (see EUROPE 11975). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)