China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sun Yuxi said Thursday in Seoul that China supports DPRK bid to normalize relations with the international community. Sun also said it is China's consistent stand to support DPRK’s moves to improve relations with other countries, and China is willing to see more countries forge normal ties with DPRK.

On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook revealed his plan as he and Prime Minister Tony Blair were en route to Seoul for an Asia-Europe summit. German Chancellor Gerard Schroeder made his announcement in the South Korean capital, where he was to attend the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) summit.

"It will happen," Schroeder told the German television network ARD. "The basics have been decided. It could go very quickly but there's no definitive timetable."

Cook said Britain would establish relations with Pyongyang for the first time since the state was set up more than 50 years ago. "We have now received an approach from DPRK to open diplomatic relations. I think it is likely we will respond positively to that," he told reporters on a plane to Seoul.

When it came to the timing of such a move, he answered that it should move at a leisurely pace, but they intend to give a positive response to the letter they received last month”.

DPRK has opened diplomatic ties with Canada, Italy and Australia this year in a flurry of diplomatic activity.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Wednesday she would have talks in Pyongyang on Monday and Tuesday, including a meeting with DPRK leader Kim Jong-il, in an effort to set up a visit by President Bill Clinton. It will be the first visit by a member of a U.S. cabinet since DPRK was created from Soviet-held territory at the end of World War II.

In June, ROK President Kim Dae-jung traveled to Pyongyang for a landmark summit with DPRK leader at which both pledged to try to end half a century of confrontation.

"The president of ROK is very keen that other countries should help to engage DPRK by bringing it in from the cold," Cook told BBC radio. France, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has not yet recognized DPRK. But French President Jacques Chirac was in Seoul on Thursday on the second day of an official visit, prior to taking part in the ASEM summit.

Chirac said the EU Supported moves to hasten rapprochement between the two Koreas, while "taking into account progress in the area of human rights and (nuclear) non-proliferation".

The Dutch government also said it supported plans to open up relations with North Korea. "The idea to normalize the relationship with DPRK is shared by many EU countries," said Frank de Bruin, spokesman for the Dutch foreign affairs ministry.

(China Daily 10/20/2000)