Plenary Session 14-17 June

Eyes worldwide have turned to the Korean peninsula over recent weeks as tensions have risen between North and South following the sinking of a South Korean ship on 26 March.  The European Parliament debates the situation on 16 June with foreign affairs High Representative Cathy Ashton. Before the debate we spoke to Christian Ehler MEP ­- leader of the Parliament's delegation for relations with North and South Korea.

The EP Delegation visited the Korean Peninsula in early June 2010. What are your main impressions from the talks you held there?

The most relevant thing is how seriously the South Korean side takes the strategic partnership with the European Union. There are a lot of European companies engaged in huge strategic projects with South Korea for example on the electric batteries, in the aerospace area, even in the automotive industry. It's not just a simple market. For many companies it is the back door to China.

How can the EU help to ease the tensions betweens the two Koreas?

First of all we shouldn't over exaggerate our position there. We are not a part of the six party talks. A strategic partnership from Korean side is not just about economics. They do want to learn from Europe's past experience in dealing with dictatorship and overcoming economic difficulties. Our main task is to transfer our knowledge from Europe to South Korea.

The EU is one of the few players which have an ongoing food programme in North Korea; the UN and many NGOs are no longer there. Our role is to keep a link with North Korea.

What is the right policy for the EU to deal with regime on Pyongyang?

There is not so much room for manoeuvre. In our experience, when you deal with this kind of dictatorship you cannot use the usual diplomatic stimulus and response model. More important is constantly to repeat the same message: go back to six party talks (see fact box - NDR), denuclearize, and try to step into the UN community again. We have a very strong position on humanitarian rights, but we want to continue the food program in North Korea. Thus we will know that the population will not be in danger of starvation.

What was the strongest human experience for you on this trip on a personal level?

When we went to the border between two countries on the South Korean side we could see a lot of trees and relatively green area. But on the North Korean side we saw only artillery positions and many miles of landmines. There are roughly 2.5 millions landmines in North Korea.