7 May 2025
I would like to thank Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari for his briefing. I also thank Mr. James Byrne for his presentation.
Colleagues,
Greece has already expressed on several occasions, including previous Council meetings, its firm condemnation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s WMD and ballistic missile programmes, especially numerous ballistic missiles launches and its six nuclear tests, which constitute a flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions.
Moreover, I would like to reaffirm Greece’s commitment to the work of the Committee established under Resolution 1718 (2006) mandated to implement the sanctions regime on DPRK.
The implementation of the sanctions regime is a vital instrument in order to peacefully convince the DPRK to abandon its nuclear activities, cease missile launches and resume dialogue with a view to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Allow me to highlight 3 points on the subject matter of our meeting.
Firstly, Greece regrets that last year the Security Council failed to adopt a resolution on the annual renewal of the mandate of the 1718 Committee Panel of Experts.
In an era when our collective security mechanisms are under strain, the failure of the Council to renew the mandate of the PoE, was another step towards further undermining the global disarmament and non-proliferation architecture.
As we have reached the one-year anniversary of the Panel’s dismantling, we have to remember that for fifteen years it has provided fact-based, objective, independent assessments, analysis, and recommendations on the implementation of UN sanctions to the DPRK.
Throughout these fifteen years, the Panel has examined evidence, exchanged views, found consensus, and delivered objective and independent reports.
The Panel’s reporting has been a critical source of information for all UN Member States and the greater public looking to better understand the DPRK’s sanctions evasion and violation activities so they can help prevent proliferation and implement Security Council resolutions.
Secondly, we are ready to engage with all relevant partners and promote a diplomatic solution providing for the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
To this end, we call on DPRK to de-escalate and engage sincerely in dialogue with the Council and the United Nations system with a view to finding a diplomatic solution, as the only path to sustainable peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.
Thirdly, we remain also concerned by the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in DPRK. We wish to repeat our call upon DPRK, to ease any restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid and to open its borders to international humanitarian personnel.
To conclude, the sanctions remain in place and must continue to be fully implemented by all Member States in the interest of regional and global peace and security.
Greece reiterates the crucial importance of the unity of the Council on this matter.
I Thank you.