Lee met with Jutta Urpilainen and Janez Lenarcic of the European Commission in Belgium on Thursday and requested Europe play a "more active role" in providing humanitarian assistance to the North and in building trust among the two Koreas and the United States.

The two sides discussed "creative ways" to cooperate and shared the view that humanitarian aid should be delivered to the North amid the COVID-19 pandemic regardless of the current security situation, the ministry said.

Lee also stressed the need for the international community to stay open to easing sanctions in the humanitarian field during his meeting with Witold Waszczykowski, vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, and with the Delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula.

Lee is scheduled to visit Sweden on Friday to meet with Foreign Minister Ann Linde and government officials in charge of the Korean Peninsula to seek Sweden's support in inter-Korean relations. (Yonhap)