Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received of bilateral co-operation between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran in the field of nuclear weapons technology.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The nuclear programmes of Iran and the DPRK are both of significant concern to the UK and to the international community. We continue to carefully monitor all developments, and to support and lead international efforts to prevent WMD proliferation, including the spread of related knowledge and technology.
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the findings of the United Nations Panel of Experts that many of the component parts of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) Unha-3 rocket were manufactured in the UK; and what steps are being taken to tighten existing UN sanctions on the DPRK's weapons programmes.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
HMG welcomes the UN DPRK Panel of Experts' 2014 Final Report. As highlighted in the report, we are cooperating fully with the Panel's investigation, whose preliminary conclusions were that all UK-origin parts used in the Unha-3 rocket were uncontrolled (i.e. off-the-shelf) items. These items do not contravene UN sanctions, MTCR control listings or UK trade restrictions and were not sold directly to the DPRK or its entities.
This highlights the lengths the DPRK takes to avoid direct purchases in favour of acquisitions through intermediaries based in third countries. HMG remains fully committed to upholding the UN-imposed sanctions on the DPRK and monitors UK activity closely to control the DPRK’s access to proliferation-sensitive material and collaborates with partners to minimise the risk of goods being diverted.