Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-17-Speech-3-067"
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"en.20010117.3.3-067"2
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". – Madam President, I very much welcome the opportunity of saying a few words on this extremely important subject. Recent events on the Korean Peninsula are of great interest and concern to all of us in Europe and the contribution that we make in helping to promote reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, in helping to bring, as it were, the North Korean government and society in out of the cold. Those efforts reflect the extent to which Europe has a global role to play and they match, in a sense, the role that Japan has been playing the Balkans – helping to support stability there. We similarly have responsibilities in other continents.
Finally, clearly the Nobel prize-winner, President Kim Dae-Jung, has been typically visionary in the efforts that he has made to promote reconciliation on the peninsula. Equally clearly, President Kim Dae-Jung has been very realistic about what can be achieved in the short term. I do not think he makes extravagant claims about the pace and development.
What is important is to keep our eyes on the horizon and to keep working towards it. We should take our inspiration from President Kim Dae-Jung, who is one of the great statesmen of our age. I hope that with his encouragement the European Union will continue to play its part in ensuring that the Korean Peninsula, the region and, indeed, the world, enjoy peace and prosperity. The consequences if we were to continue to isolate the DPRK, if the DPRK was to continue to be prepared to be isolated, are too grim to contemplate.
A European Union approach towards recent developments in the Korean Peninsula was agreed at the General Affairs Councils of 9 October and 20 November last year. This approach aims, as I have said, to support the inter-Korean reconciliation process in order to bring about peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. Taking this approach as the basis for Commission action, the Commission will maintain and is considering increasing its assistance to North Korea. Overall, in the last few years, that assistance has totalled – including the contribution to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation – about EUR 275m.
However, any increases should be measured in response to signs of progress of the DPRK in areas of principal concern to us and, I know, to Members of this House. Respect, for example, for human rights; non-proliferation issues; access for the population to external aid; better operating conditions for NGOs – a point I was able to make to the DPRK Foreign Minister in Bangkok last summer – and the opening up of the DPRK's economy and the structural reform that will be a necessary part of that.
This approach has been outlined to the North Korean authorities at the recent Senior Officials Troika meeting in Pyongyang at the end of November. I understand that my services are keeping Parliament fully informed of this issue. Parliament has shown an active interest in this subject for some time.
The humanitarian and food assistance delivered to the DPRK – around EUR 200m since 1993 – will continue. A new food security programme for 2000, totalling EUR 20m, has just been adopted by the Commission. I should point out that we have moved from regular food aid to structural food assistance and, in particular, the provision of inputs and technical assistance to enhance agricultural production. The implementation of humanitarian projects approved in the year 2000 will extend well into the summer of this year.
Humanitarian aid – mainly medicines, water, sanitation and winter clothes – is planned to continue on a more selective basis, but at a level adequate to respond to real humanitarian needs. We also have the scope to match, with additional assistance, any further progress made by the DPRK authorities, notably in terms of access to the most vulnerable populations and the improvement of working conditions for non-governmental organisations.
In addition, the Commission is now considering possible measures in the fields of technical assistance and trade, which could be gradually extended if North Korea makes progress in the areas I have mentioned. As a first step, these measures include a general increase in the DPRK textile quota by 60%, 50% in the case of a few product categories.
A fact-finding expert mission will be sent shortly to assess needs and identify areas in which pilot technical assistance projects could be pursued. But they certainly include an area which, I know, has been of interest to Mr Ford – that is the whole question of the energy industries in North Korea which will be so important to the country's economic future.
As to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the European Community and the DPRK, the Commission is considering the appropriate timing of such a step in close coordination with Member States."@en1
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