The EU will undertake a troika mission to Pyongyang and Seoul before the end of May to assist reconciliation between North and South Korea, Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson has said.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the two-day EU summit, Persson said he would travel with EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten and EU foreign policy high representative Javier Solana.
"The aim is to express support for the process started by (South Korean President) Kim Dae-Jung, a process aimed at bringing to an end one of the last conflicts with origins in the Second World War," Persson said.
The announcement follows an invitation extended Thursday by North Korea's deputy foreign minister Choi Su-Hon, during talks with Swedish foreign ministry officials in Stockholm on the eve of the summit.
Following consultations with his summit peers, Persson said: "I now have the support of all the heads of state and government to go (to the Korean peninsula) with Javier and Chris."
He stressed that the troika would insist on discussing a wide range of issues with the North Koreans, including human rights in the world's last hardline communist state. "These are clear conditions," he said.
In the summit's conclusions, the EU leaders, meeting as the European Council, "agreed to enhance the role of the union in support of peace, security and freedom on the Korean peninsula."
"It hopes that there will be early results, including through a second interKorea summit and implementation of the Joint Declaration," the conclusions stated.
AFP