The European Commission says it will establish diplomatic relations with North Korea in a move South Korean analysts hope will encourage the US to resume talks with the communist regime.
The Commission move follows 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 comes as the Bush administration reviews its policy regarding the North after suspending a dialogue begun by former President Clinton.
The EC 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 15-member European Union will be represented in Pyongyang and when the North Koreans can open a mission at the EU headquarters in Brussels, the commission said.
Secretary of State Gen Colin 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."
Gen Powell said the Bush administration would resume contacts at the "time and place of our choosing."
PA