The European Union has banned the sale of oil and oil products to North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
 
Speaking after an EU foreign ministers meeting, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said the 28-member bloc slapped new sanctions on North Korea to maximize the level of economic pressure and diplomatic pressure on the North.
 
[Sound bite: EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini]
"The measures we adopted today take effect immediately so as of today and our new measures include a total ban on EU investments in the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) in all sectors, a total ban on the sale of refined petroleum products and crude oil to the DPRK and lowering the amount of personal remittances transferred to the DPRK from 15-thousand euros to five-thousand euros."
 
Previously, the EU's prohibition of investment in the North had been limited to certain industries such as the space industry related to nuclear and ballistic missiles. 
 
The new sanctions, aimed at blocking funds flowing into the North Korean regime, also cut the amount of money that people can send to North Korea from 15-thousand euros to five-thousand euros.
 
EU foreign ministers also agreed in Luxembourg not to renew work permits for North Koreans in the EU, as North Korean workers abroad -- estimated at about 400 in Poland -- are suspected to be sending money back to the North's nuclear weapons programs.
 
The sanctions added three more top North Korean officials and six businesses to a blacklist banning them from travel to the EU and freezing their assets. That will take the total of those sanctioned by the EU to 104 individuals and 63 entities.
 

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