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Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the "experimental communications satellite" launch by the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea

The EU strongly condemns the „experimental communications satellite" launch performed on 5 April 2009 by the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in breach of the UN Security Council Resolution 1718. These actions place additional strains on regional stability at a time when the unresolved nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula requires mutual confidence building. Such actions are also a matter of more general concern due to their global proliferation implications.

The EU urges the DPRK to comply with the UNSC Resolution 1718 and immediately to suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile programme and abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.

The EU will continue actively to support efforts to resolve the security issues on the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.

April 5, 2009