DATE=05/03/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=EU/NORTH KOREA (S/L)

NUMBER=2-275609

BYLINE=JIM RANDLE

DATELINE=PYONGYANG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The head of the European Union says North Korea will continue its moratorium on missile testing. That statement came after two days of talks in Pyongyang between the Prime Minister of Sweden which holds the rotating presidency of the E-U and North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il. V-O-A's Jim Randle reports from Pyongyang.

TEXT: Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden says North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il made the commitment in discussions Thursday.

/// PERSSON ACT ///

Kim Jong-Il said that the moratorium on testing would last until 2003 and during which they would wait and see.

//END ACTUALITY//

North Korea caused great concern in its neighbors and the United States when it test fired a missile over Japan and far out into the Pacific several years ago.

Mr. Persson also said the northern leader appeared willing to resume reconciliation efforts between the two Koreas. Efforts have stalled lately.

One important step in that process would be a second summit meeting between North and South Korea. Mr. Persson says Kim Jong-Il now appears to want such a meeting, though he did not say when.

North Korea put many high level contacts with the South on hold after the new Bush Administration said it would review its policy toward North Korea. Mr. Persson says he reassured the North Koreans that Washington's policy review does not necessarily mean that U-S policy will change in ways hostile to Pyongyang.

/// rest opt for long ///

The Swedish Prime Minister said Chairman Kim gave him a message to take to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, but he would not say what was in it. The E-U delegation is set to fly to Seoul Thursday evening for talks that will continue on Friday.

E-U officials say reconciliation efforts are important because more than one million North Korean soldiers face about 600-thousand South Korean troops and 37-thousand American soldiers across the most heavily-armed and dangerous border on earth.

The two Koreas fought a bloody, costly war that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty in 1953, leaving the two sides technically still in a state of war half a century later. (Signed).

NEB/HK/JR/gpt