Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that UK manufacturing products are not used as components in North Korean produced weapons.

North Korea is currently subject to sanctions imposed by the UN and EU. These measures include an asset freeze, travel ban and an extensive embargo which prohibits the export of arms, dual-use goods, and luxury goods and imposes restrictions on the export of other listed items which could contribute to nuclear or ballistic missile programmes. All export licence applications are assessed against the consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, considering the prevailing circumstances at the time of the application, including the capabilities of the equipment, and the end user. A licence would not be granted if to do so would be a breach of our international obligations or we assessed there was an unacceptable risk of diversion to a WMD programme or to a military programme in an embargoed destination. However, it is impossible to completely prevent non-listed items manufactured in the UK being used in North Korean produced weapons, for example if items are legitimately exported from the UK to third countries but are subsequently sold to entities in the DPRK. For this reason the UK is also active in encouraging other countries to enforce DPRK sanctions more effectively. HMRC works together with Border Force to enforce export controls and trade sanctions and they have a range of powers available to prevent illicit exports. Enforcing sanctions is a high priority.