Relevant EU documents
The EU has implemented the restrictive measures against North Korea decided by the UN by adopting various legal instruments - Council decisions (previously called common positions) and regulations. In some cases, EU Member States have agreed to clarify or tighten UN measures in the EU legal acts. The fact that Council decisions are adopted by the Council of the European Union within the intergovernmental cooperation on a common foreign and security policy means that they, like the resolutions of the UN Security Council, are binding for Sweden under international law. Measures that fall under the competence of the Member States are further regulated in national legislation. For example, this would be Swedish military equipment legislation as regards the arms embargo. Special national legislation exists regarding the prohibition on importing arms, etc. that was not already regulated under Swedish law. Measures under the competence of the Union are instead regulated through EU regulations, which are directly applicable and legally binding in Sweden.
The sanctions against North Korea are currently consolidated in Council Decision 2010/800/CFSP, which replaces a common position from 2006 with subsequent amendments.
The parts of the sanctions against North Korea covered by EU law are laid down in a basic regulation from the Council of the European Union, Regulation (EC) No 329/2007. It provides certain definitions and regulates the prohibitions regarding dual-use products and certain associated services, the arms embargo and also the rules on freezing of assets. This regulation also contains a list of the luxury goods that are prohibited from being provided to North Korea. A list of the dual-use products prohibited from export and import by a UN decision was introduced for the first time in a regulation from the European Commission in 2007, which was included as contents of Annex 1 of the Council Regulation. However, this list has currently lost its relevance, since the EU established other principles for the prohibition in 2009. This innovation was carried out in December 2009 through Council Regulation (EC) No 1283/2009, which introduced amendments and additions to a large number of points in Council Regulation (EC) No 329/2007. Under Council Regulation (EC) No 1283/2009, the prohibition is to include the EU standardised list of dual-use products in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 428/2009, and also dual-use products that the EU has chosen in addition to the standardised list, which are specified in Annex 1 a. A corresponding approach was introduced for the prohibition against certain related services. Certain additions were made to Annex 1 a in 2010, and the latest version can be found in Council Regulation (EU) No 567/2010. The people and entities covered by the EUs own decisions on the freezing of assets are currently listed in the Annex to Commission Regulation (EU) No 1251/2010.
Council Regulation (EC) No 1283/2009 also imposes detailed regulations on the stricter control regime regarding transport and bunkering services, as well as the control regimes in relation to financial and credit institutions. The latter will be supplemented by an annex specifying the banks associated with North Korea that are covered. The rules on the freezing of assets were also revised so that they are adjusted to the fact that the EU can independently take decisions on such regulations alongside UN decisions.
The applicable legal acts are available for download on the right hand side. Due to the legislative technique used by the EU with frequent amendments to previous legal acts, the regulations must be read concurrently, and at times in parallel, with one another.
The prohibition on importing arms and related materiel of all types has been transposed into Swedish law through the Ordinance concerning certain sanctions against the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea (SFS 2011:67).
