Merkel Says Iran Deal a Model for solving North Korea Issue

“If our participation in talks is desired, I will immediately say yes,” Merkel told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview published on Sunday.
 
She pointed to the example of the agreement sealed in Vienna in July 2015 by Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, describing it as “a long but important time of diplomacy” that ultimately had a good end.
 
Iran’s nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was inked between Iran and the P5+1 countries — namely the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain plus Germany — in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016.
 
Under the deal, limits were put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of all nuclear-related bans imposed on the Islamic Republic, among other things.
 
“I could imagine such a format being used to end the North Korea conflict. Europe and especially Germany should be prepared to play a very active part in that,” Merkel said.
 
Her comments come ahead of U.N. Security Council talks on how the international community should deal with North Korea’s ratcheting up of its nuclear and missile programs. The United States said Friday it intends to call for a vote on Monday on a draft resolution establishing additional sanctions on North Korea, according to Reuters.
 
New measures would include imposing an oil embargo, banning its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers abroad, and subjecting leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban.
 
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hosted an elaborate banquet in Pyongyang over the weekend for military leaders, scientists and technicians to celebrate the country’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test. Pyongyang says the underground blast on 3 September was a two-stage thermonuclear device, or hydrogen bomb.
 
The state news agency, KCNA, published photographs on Sunday showing Kim beaming with two of the scientific minds behind the country’s surprisingly fast progress - Ri Hong Sop, the head of the country’s nuclear weapons institute, and Hong Sung Mu, the deputy director of the ruling party’s munitions industry department.
 
North Korea blames the US for escalating tensions in the region through its provocative military drills. Pyongyang insists that it is developing nuclear weapons to deal with growing threats posed by the US.