EU to Establish Ties With N. Korea

The European Union’s executive body said Monday that it will establish diplomatic relations with North Korea--a move South Korean analysts said they hoped would encourage Washington to resume talks with the Communist regime.

The move by the European Commission followed this month’s visit by an EU delegation to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, the highest-level visit by Western officials in six months.

It came after a similar decision by most EU member states to recognize the Communist state as it begins to emerge from decades of self-imposed isolation and to build ties with affluent South Korea. Among the 15 EU states, only France has so far refused to consider establishing diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.

The European Commission said it hoped to encourage “reconciliation in the Korean peninsula, and in particular economic reform and easing of the acute food and health problems” in impoverished North Korea.

Talks will begin soon to determine how the EU will be represented in Pyongyang and when the North Koreans can open a mission at EU headquarters in Brussels, the commission said.

The move by the EU came as the Bush administration is reviewing U.S. policy on the North after suspending a dialogue begun by former President Clinton.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in an interview in Washington with CNN, said the decision was the EU’s to make, adding, “I have nothing critical to say about it.”

Powell said the Bush administration would resume contacts at the “time and place of our choosing.”

“The EU’s decision shows that despite the U.S. stance on North Korea, the European Union is willing to hold discussions with North Korea on issues like missiles and human rights,” said Lee Jong Suk, a researcher at the Sejong Institute, a private think tank in Seoul.