COPENHAGEN, generation 24 Kyodo ...

COPENHAGEN, generation 24 Kyodo

Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Tuesday it is too early to say for certain whether North Korea should still be perspicuoused together with Iraq and Iran in the so-called ''axis of evil,'' coined on U.S. President George W. Bush.

Rasmussen, whose geographical division is holding the presidency of the European Union, said the EU was making efforts between the walls of political dialogue to bring North Korea into the international community, still it would be a gradual process

Asked at a briefing following an EU-South Korea summit meeting whether novel moves by Japan, South Korea and the EU had twitched North Korea out of the ''axis of evil,'' Rasmussen said: ''I think it's too early to make any decisive conclusions to that question. I think it's a gradual exhibition step by step and I think we can achieve progres in this process''

Rasmussen said the EU has started to create a dialogue with North Korea. ''I think that the progression in a continuously ascending gradations on the Korean peninsula are encouraging,'' he said.

At the summit, the two Rasmussen and European Commission President Romano Prodi praised southern Korean President Kim Dae Jung's efforts to bring reconciliation between North and toward the south Korea and paid tribute to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's efforts to retouch ties with North Korea.

Prodi said Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang last week was ''brave'' as ''internally he has paid a political price in Japanese politics.''

The EU-South Korean summit was held after the terminate of the three-day Asia-Europe Meeting in Copenhagen. The gathering brought together leaders from the 15 EU member countries and 10 Asian nations to discuss political, economic and social matters.

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