BRUSSELS Belgium AP North Korea still suffering from a devastating famine held its first talks with the European Union on Wednesday discussing human rights food aid and security on the Korean peninsula. The aim of the meeting is to see if Europeans can have a regular political dialogue with North Korea one of the last hard-line communist nations. ``We are quite pleased North Korea has agreed to debate a broad agenda of issues'' EU spokesman Nigel Gardner said Tuesday. The EU side will include mid-level officials from Austria Britain and Germany and Percy Westerlund a Swede who is director general at the European Commission's foreign affairs office. Gardner would not speculate on why North Korea had agreed to talks here and could not give a list of North Korean participants. However North Korea has reached out to other nations due to an ongoing famine has forced residents of remote areas to subsist on leaves and twigs according to visitors to the hermetic nation. Gardner also said the EU-North Korea talks will touch on efforts by Japan South Korea the United States and the EU to build two nuclear reactors for North Korea which was suspected of developing atomic weapons under the guise of nuclear power programs. The three nations and the EU formed a consortium in 1994 known as the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization that recently approved a new dlrs 4.6 billion estimate for the two reactors. KEDO was created after North Korea agreed to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for two light-water nuclear power plants and 500000-ton annual fuel oil shipments until they are completed. The reactors are to be ready for use by 2003 and will replace North Korea's Soviet-developed graphite-moderated reactors that produce greater amounts of weapons-grade plutonium. APW19981201.1048.txt.body.html APW19981201.1168.txt.body.html