1. Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Hong-kyun and Director-General for Political Affairs and Security Nicolas De Rivière of the French Foreign Ministry held a telephone conversation on November 15 to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between the ROK and France on the North Korean nuclear issue.

2. In the telephone consultation, the two sides agreed to set up an “ROK-France high-level consultation on the North Korean nuclear issue” in a follow-up to the agreement to step up coordination on the issue, which had been reached at the bilateral summit talks during the ROK President’s state visit to France in early June. They also agreed to hold the inaugural round of the consultation between Special Representative Kim and Director-General De Rivière in the near future.

3. The two sides voiced deep concern over the current circumstance, where North Korea is accelerating efforts to advance its nuclear and missile capabilities, including by conducting the two nuclear tests and launching 24 ballistic missiles in 2016 alone, in flagrant defiance of repeated warnings from the international community. In this regard, the two sides drew a common understanding that in response to North Korea’s threats, the international community needs to take measures different from those of the past, including tougher autonomous sanctions by the ROK, the US, the EU and other individual countries and the international community’s pressure on North Korea.

4. The creation of the high-level consultation on the North Korean nuclear issue with France will mark the ROK’s first such case with an EU member state. The ROK government is coordinating closely with not only France, but also with its other partners at the EU on ways to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

° In early October, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se visited Brussels at the invitation of NATO, during which he delivered an address on the North Korean nuclear issue at the North Atlantic Council and met with such high-level officials as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to seek close coordination on the issue.

* unofficial translation