Relations between NKorea and EU based on mutual understanding

PYONGYANG, May 15 (Itar-Tass) - Relations between North Korea and the
European Union "are favourably developing on a bilateral basis and in
compliance with positive trends in international politics", says an
article, published on Sunday in the country's leading newspaper Rodong
Sinmun on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of establishing diplomatic
relations between the EU and People's Korea.
The newspaper reports that the visit to Pyongyang by the EU delegation
a decade ago "turned a new chapter in cooperation between them". Since
that time on, considerable positive changes have taken place between North
Korea and European states, which "has become possible thanks to
independent and peaceful foreign policy of our republic".
These fruitful relations, based on mutual understanding, the newspaper
continues, helped "to consolidate the prestige of the DPRK in the
international arena as well as to strengthen EU positions in North East
Asia and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole". Rodong Sinmun goes on to say
that the sides continue to exchange top-level delegations in the past
years and develop cooperation in various spheres.
In May 2000, North Korea was visited by a delegation of the European
Union led by Goran Persson who was Swedish prime minister at the time. The
sides discussed the process of re-unification of Korea, prospects for
economic reforms and the North Korean nuclear problem.
European countries are now represented in North Korea by the embassies
of Britain, Germany, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and
Bulgaria.