ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) is a relatively new player on the Korean Peninsula. It
has, therefore, received only scant attention despite its considerable financial
contribution to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO),
as a member of its board (ranking third, before Japan!), and its humanitarian aid
to North Korea. From 2000 onward, the EU’s involvement deepened with the
establishment of diplomatic relations with Pyongyang by most of its member
states. At the beginning of 2001, the EU’s North Korea policy gained additional
importance when the EU tried to maintain through its diplomatic activities the
political momentum created by the Clinton Administration and the North-South
Summit of June 2000 – a momentum that was threatened by the policy review
process of the new Bush Administration.
