The EU has risked creating fresh tension with Washington by proposing to open diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has been branded a rogue state by the US.
The Commission will ask the 15 member-states next month to approve the opening of an office in Pyongyang to represent EU interests in the communist state.
Ireland and France are the only EU states that have yet to establish diplomatic relations with North Korea but the Department of Foreign Affairs has started the process of negotiating with Pyongyang.
A new trade deal between the EU and South Korea comes into effect tomorrow and the EU sees both steps as expressions of its support for the process of reconciliation between the two Koreas.
At last week's EU summit in Stockholm, Sweden's Prime Minister, Mr Goeran Persson, announced that he would visit North Korea in May, along with the EU's two leading foreign policy figures, Mr Javier Solana and Mr Chris Patten. The three men will meet the North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong Il - a step no leading US figure has been willing to take.
Sweden's Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindh, made clear that the EU feels the need to step up its support for the Korean peace process because President Bush has adopted a more hard-line approach to the issue.
A Commission spokesman denied that the EU moves would be viewed as a provocation in Washington and claimed that foreign policy differences between Europe and the US had been exaggerated.
"Our policies haven't changed. It's just that US policies in a number of areas are under review," he said.
