A senior EU delegation left the Korean peninsula yesterday after talks with the leaders of both North and South Korea aimed at assisting the ailing reunification process.
The Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Goran Persson, said at the end of the three-day mission that it was too early to predict the result of the visits.
"We don't know what will happen. You can never be sure about that. You always take a risk with political dialogue, but not having dialogue is an even bigger risk," the Swedish leader said.
Mr Persson, who led the high-powered EU team, relayed what he described as a "constructive" message from the North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong-il, to President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea.
The EU group arrived in Seoul on Thursday night after a brief visit to Pyongyang, where they held more than five hours of talks with Mr Kim in the first-ever visit by a Western leader to the reclusive state.
The EU team received an assurance that there would be a second Korean summit, but only when the US finished its North Korean policy review.
Yesterday the South Korean President, Mr Kim Dae-jung, at a press conference after his meeting with the EU delegation, called on the US to finish the review promptly to ensure the new peace-making summit takes place.
Mr Persson referred yesterday to the apparent olive branch to Seoul and Washington from Mr Kim Jong-il, committing himself to maintain his country's 1999 moratorium on missile tests until 2003, and said it needed to be backed up by concrete actions.
"So far we have seen too little action to be sure about the character of the partner we have in North Korea," he said.
The EU foreign policy adviser, Mr Javier Solana, said the fact that Mr Kim told the EU delegation in Pyongyang that he remained interested in exporting missile technology was unacceptable.
Mr Persson said the EU mission to try and assist in delicate Korean peninsula diplomacy was "useful", but he made it clear that Brussels would never be able to replace efforts by the two Koreas and the US aimed at reunifying the divided peninsula.
The EU, he added, should engage in similar delicate processes around the world in future.
He said he found Mr Kim Jong-il very well briefed during talks. "We had direct and informal discussions. He spoke without relying on his speaking points," he added.
The North Korean leader was also "able to listen and to argue with us". However, Mr Persson said, when the discussion entered the area of human rights it was more difficult to have dialogue. He said EU values in this area were very different from those in North Korea.
A suggestion that North Korea send a study group to Europe to look at market economies came from Mr Kim, he said.
He had had one conversation with the North Korean leader about the role of men and women in the world. He said the question of equality was relevant when talking about a modern economy and society.
"North Korea is a society that must change and must go to democratic openness and basic human rights. I hope the leader of that country is prepared to go ahead with a process," he said.
The EU will decide at a meeting on May 14th whether or not to establish a representative office in North Korea.
So far 13 EU member-states have established or declared their intention to establish diplomatic relations with North Korea.
Ireland has said it expects to have talks soon about the issue with the North Koreans, leaving France the only EU member-state not engaging with the reclusive country.
