On Thursday 27 September, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini urged North Korea "to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty without delay, giving legal effect to the suspension of nuclear tests".
In a speech at the ninth ministerial meeting of the Friends of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in New York, Mogherini called on Pyongyang to adhere to the country's declared suspension of testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Mogherini stated that North Korea's accession to the Treaty "could create the conditions for a solution of the Korean issue, and represent a decisive step towards the full, verifiable and irreversible de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula".
In the meantime, "until North Korea does take these concrete steps towards denuclearisation, we will continue to strictly enforce existing sanctions", she said.
On a broader level, Mogherini urged the states that have not yet signed or ratified the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty "to do so without further delay", and pending its entry into force, "to refrain from conducting any action contrary to the object and purpose of the Treaty". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)