Resolution on the situation in North Korea

2014/2696(RSP)

The European Parliament adopted by 41 votes, with no votes against and no abstentions, a resolution on the situation in North Korea (DPRK).

The text adopted in plenary had been tabled as a joint resolution by the PPE, S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA and ECR groups.

Parliament reiterates its strong condemnation of the decades-long state repression exercised in a systematic manner by the present and past Supreme Leaders of the DPRK. It urged the EU Member States and all members of the UN General Assembly to move the suffering of the North Korean population to the forefront of the political agenda.

According to the Members, the time has come for the international community to take concrete action to end the perpetrators’ impunity. They demand that those most responsible for the crimes against humanity committed in the DPRK be held accountable, brought before the International Criminal Court and subjected to targeted sanctions. In this context, Parliament calls on the EEAS and the Member States to support the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in establishing special structures to ensure accountability for the crimes committed, through the continued collection of evidence and documentation.

The DPRK government is urged to:

  • immediately and permanently to stop public and secret executions and to abolish the death penalty, to release political prisoners and to allow its citizens to travel freely, both within and outside the country;
  • hand over all information on third-country nationals suspected to have been abducted by North Korean state agents during the past decades;
  • ensure access for all citizens to food and humanitarian assistance on the basis of need, in accordance with humanitarian principles;
  • invest its resources in improving the appalling living conditions of its people instead of in the further build-up of its military arsenal and nuclear programme.

Parliament also calls on all UN members, and in particular the People’s Republic of China, to come to the aid of North Korean citizens who manage to escape from the country, by granting them the right to stay.

It lastly calls on the UN to convene a high-level political conference between the parties to the Korean War with the aim of concluding a final peaceful settlement of the war.