France has proposed setting up a cultural cooperation office in North Korea in a bid to promote exchanges with the communist state.

France’s special envoy on North Korea Jack Lang told a hearing of members of parliament on Wednesday that France has offered to open a permanent structure of cultural cooperation in the North as a way of improving the North’s human rights situation and living conditions.

Lang, who was briefing parliament members on a trip he made last month to Pyongyang, said the proposal was made through the North Korean mission to Paris.

However, Lang ruled out the possibility that the recent proposal was made with the establishment of diplomatic ties in mind. He said progress must be made in the North’s human rights situation and on the nuclear issue in order for France to consider establishing diplomatic ties.

Most European Union countries opened up to the idea of establishing relations with North Korea in 2000, with the exception of France, which raised issue with the North’s human rights situation and concerns about weapons proliferation.