Agence Europe, January 11, 2000

MEP Olivier Dupuis (elected on the Bonino list) has sharply criticised Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini further to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Italy and North Korea (see EUROPE of 6 January, p. 5). "Rather than calling on the European Union to promote a United Nations initiative to condemn a country responsible for the extermination of more than 3 million people in the last four years", stated the Belgian MEP and Partito Radicale Secretary, Mr Dini has provided "moral backing for a regime which, were the International Criminal Tribunal already in existence, would have to answer for crimes against humanity and genocide". In his view, this "strategy" (with which "we do not at all concur") could eventually be effective if it were an initiative involving all the EU countries, with a single Union representative in Pyongyang.