EU-North Korea Economic Ties: Old legacies and future prospects

This chapter focuses on how the European Union (EU)-North Korea has evolved from its Korean War and Cold War legacies to its current political process and what economic milestones have shaped the relationship. It examines what kind of economic relationship could develop out of a history that has been shaped by limited trade opportunity and a strict sanction regime. The relationships between the North Korea and European countries were thus largely shaped and limited by political values and international agreements. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation process, which started in 1994 via the Agreed Framework, and which ended in 2007 with the closure of the New York Secretariat, is the largest project surrounding the North Korea that the EU has been involved. The European Union has also imposed its own autonomous sanctions regarding travel bans of persons involved in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea nuclear programmes.