Statement of the Republic of Slovenia on behalf of the European Union by mr. Bojan Bertoncelj, Chargé d`Affaires for Multilateral Affairs, Permanent Mission of Slovenia
Mr. Chairman,
1. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Croatia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia, the EFTA countries Iceland an Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as The Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, associate themselves with this statement.
Mr. Chairman,
2. The EU attaches great importance to the common goal of the Six Parties to achieve the early denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner. The European Union underlines the importance of swift and full implementation of the commitments contained in the Joint Statement of 19 September 2005, leading to the full disablement and dismantlement of the nuclear weapons programme of the DPRK in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.
3. The European Union calls once again on the DPRK to fully comply with all relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1695, 1718 and with its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, including the implementation of its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement in full cooperation with the IAEA. As the IAEA's work in the DPRK moves forward, the IAEA's verification mandate will have to be further strengthened, through the Additional Protocol. The European Union continues to have very serious concerns with regards to the DPRK's proliferation activities, and in this regards, the EU recalls the DPRK's obligation as defined by relevant UNSC Resolutions not to enter into any proliferation sensitive exports.
4. Although most of the agreed tasks were successfully completed prior to the agreed date of 31 December 2007, the disablement of the three core facilities at Yongbyon is still on-going and the EU calls on the DPRK to pursue, without delay, work towards completion of the reactor fuel unload which has been slowed down for some time. The EU regrets that the full disablement will still take some months.
5. The EU is concerned by the slow pace of implementation of other actions foreseen by the Joint Statement. We recognize that the documents related to the operating and production records of the 5-megawatt reactor and the reprocessing plant in Yongbyon which have been recently handed over to the US, constitute an important first step. The EU emphasizes that a complete and correct declaration of all DPRK's nuclear programmes will ultimately be necessary for the DPRK to fulfil its commitment in the Joint Statement to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a verifiable manner. The EU therefore urges all parties to fulfil their commitments and the DPRK to provide a declaration of all its nuclear programmes as soon as possible. In view of the Agency's past experience of the DPRK's operations in Yongbyon, the EU also supports the IAEA's involvement in the verification of the documents provided by the DPRK.
6. The EU strongly supports the work of the IAEA in the DPRK and calls on the Six-Parties to facilitate the increased involvement of the Agency in the DPRK, in particular when the verification issue will be the next step for negotiation. The EU is convinced that the IAEA has an indispensable role in verifying the completeness and correctness of DPRK's declaration of its nuclear programme. The EU calls on the DPRK to implement its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement in full so as to return to the IAEA without delay.
7. The EU would like to inform the Board of Governors that it finalized the contractual arrangements with the IAEA on 31 March 2008 for the implementation of the EU Joint Action (close to € 1.8 million) in support of IAEA monitoring and verification activities in the DPRK in the framework of the EU Strategy against the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman
