BRUSSELS: The European Union agreed on Monday to impose more sanctions on North Korea in retaliation for the nuclear test the country conducted last week, EU officials said. The measures range from financial measures to travel bans and asset freezes against individuals.
The new sanctions include the implementation of individual sanctions approved at UN level as well as EU restrictions on financial dealings and trade sanctions on items potentially linked to Pyonyang’s ballistic and nuclear programmes, the source said.
“It is a tough package that aims to mark our opposition to the nuclear test,” conducted by Pyonyang on February 12, a senior EU diplomat said on the condition of anonymity.
The UN Security Council on January 22 ordered expanded sanctions against North Korea, adding its state space agency, a bank, four trading companies and four individuals to an existing UN sanctions list.
“We have pushed for enhancing the sanctions. This is the answer to a nuclear programme which endangers not only the region but the whole security architecture worldwide,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said during a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.
North Korea was widely condemned last week after its third nuclear test since 2006, defying United Nations resolutions and putting the country closer to a workable long-range nuclear missile.
North Korean banks will also be barred from opening new branches in the European Union and European banks would not be able to open new branches in the northeast Asian state. Diplomats could not say if North Korean banks had any branches in the EU.
