EU, US, allies urges North Korea to abandon nuclear, missile programs

A group of countries including the US, the UK, Japan as well as the EU on Wednesday reiterated their demand for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and urged all UN member states to fully implement sanctions.

In a statement, the EU, the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea reaffirmed their commitment to the "complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization" of North Korea.

The statement noted that the EU, Australia and the US implemented sanctions in October to target North Korea's "use of overseas workers, malicious cyber activities, and actors involved in unlawful DPRK (North Korea)-Russia cooperation."

"Their actions represent their efforts to disrupt the DPRK's ability to support its unlawful development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missiles, and to counter unlawful DPRK-Russia military cooperation," it added.

The statement said the designations build on detailed reporting published by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), which monitors and reports on North Korea's non-compliance with UN Security Council resolutions.

"The MSMT and EU reaffirm our commitment to the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the DPRK, calling on it to abandon its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs, and taking action to counter DPRK attempts to violate and evade UN sanctions."

It added: "We continue to strongly support the implementation of all DPRK-related UN Security Council resolutions."

The signatories also urged all UN member states, especially permanent members of the Security Council, to fully implement the resolutions.