Today North Korea has carried out another ballistic missile test only a few hours after the UN Security Council held a Ministerial Session on its nuclear and ballistic missile program. By continuing its weapons programmes in clear violation of the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, Pyongyang is dangerously close to achieving a nuclear strike capability which would threaten our partners in East Asia and our allies.

North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and reckless provocations constitute the gravest threat to global safety and security today. We must increase the diplomatic and economic pressure on the North Korean leadership to abandon their plans threatening the regional and global peace. Hungary welcomes the even closer coordination between responsible members of the international community to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. We urge every country involved to commit completely in order to stop the leadership in Pyongyang.

Hungary supports a swift resumption of peaceful negotiations to increase the safety and stability of the Korean Peninsula. First, North Korea must take concrete steps towards dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes to establish an atmosphere in which negotiations are possible.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)