Japan’s NHK says North Korea has accepted France’s offer to set up a cultural cooperation office in Pyongyang.

The Japanese broadcaster quoted the North’s Korean Central News Agency as saying Friday that Pyongyang agreed to France’s proposal in a bid to further advance relations with the European nation.

The North Korean agency added that the establishment of the cultural cooperation office would mark the first step toward a normalization of ties between the two nations.

France is the only member of the European Union that has not opened up to the idea of establishing relations with North Korea. However, last month France’s special envoy on North Korea Jack Lang visited Pyongyang and 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.