Tarja Cronberg, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, it is unbelievable how closed authoritarian societies can have control over every aspect of citizens’ lives, not to talk about the violence or unspeakable atrocities against inmates of prison camps. We were talking before, with Morten Messerschmidt, about national governments and their responsibilities. The national government of North Korea should, of course, have a responsibility to put an end to extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and collective punishment. This is not OK and the international community and the EU must put them under pressure.

In North Korea all prison camps should be closed, political prisoners released and citizens allowed to travel freely both within and outside the country and we call on – and I underline this – the North Korean Government to allow free expression and press freedom of national and international media as well as uncensored access to the Internet for its citizens. We also call on the government to invest in the living conditions of its people, instead of building military arsenals and investing in a nuclear programme.