EU condemns North Korea missile launch

Brussels called on the isolationist regime to abandon its weapons programs.

The EU and NATO condemned Sunday’s ballistic missile launch by North Korea. Brussels called on the isolationist regime to abandon its weapons programs and instead engage in “credible and meaningful dialogue with the international community” while NATO demanded that North Korea “comply with its international obligations.”

“The launch earlier today of a ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) seriously violates multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions,” Maja Kocijančič‏, a spokeswoman for the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said in a statement. “This and previous launches constitute a threat to international peace and security and further aggravate tensions in the region at a time when de-escalation is instead needed.”

Kocijančič‏ called on North Korea to “halt these launches and abandon its ballistic missiles programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner” and also to give up its nuclear weapons program.

“The European Union calls on the DPRK to engage in a credible and meaningful dialogue with the international community,” Kocijančič‏ said. “The European Union is ready to support such a process for dialogue.”

Oana Lungescu, NATO’s chief spokeswoman, called the missile launch “a new flagrant breach of a series of United Nations Security Council Resolutions, constituting a threat to international peace and security.”

“North Korea should comply with its international obligations, cease all activities related to its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes, abandon all existing weapons of mass destruction programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and engage in a credible dialogue with the international community,” Lungescu said in her statement.

The Trump administration in its own condemnation of the missile launch called North Korea a “flagrant menace.”



[POLITICO]