VP/HR — Recent relations between the European Union and North Korea

31.10.2017

Question for written answer E-006758-17
to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative)
Rule 130
Claude Rolin (PPE)

According to the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into human-rights violations in North Korea, abuses of human rights in that country are without parallel in the contemporary world. It is recognised that the European Union has played, and continues to play, a leading role in pushing the issue of human-rights violations in North Korea higher up the international agenda. Moreover, following recent instances of provocation and nuclear tests by North Korea, the international community, including the EU, adopted new sanctions against the regime of Kim Jong-Un in an effort to get him to abandon his nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

However, as the USA, under the Trump administration, appears increasingly impatient with North Korea, going so far as to contemplate military action should the threat level rise, will the Union stick to its policy of dialogue and peaceful engagement?

Will it, aside from the sanctions adopted at UN level, also encourage people-to-people contacts, particularly through education and research programmes and assistance for NGOs, as part of a long-term pacification strategy for North Korea?