Paris opened an office in Pyongyang earlier this month to help French aid groups in North Korea, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said during his trip to Seoul.
Fillon said on Friday the suffering of North Koreans is behind the decision to open the cooperation office, noting aiding the nongovernmental organizations is a top priority for the office.
Currently, two French aid groups are working inside the impoverished communist country.
Fillon also said France informed South Korea of the opening. He made the comment in a meeting with French residents during his trip to Seoul.
Last month, the French Foreign Ministry said that the office will be headed by Olivier Vaysset, a diplomat with expertise in cultural and cooperation issues.
France does not have formal diplomatic relations with North Korea.
The opening came as the U.N. food agency said a third of all North Korean children under five are chronically malnourished, the latest sign of food shortages in the North.
The World Food Program also said earlier this month that many more children are at risk of slipping into acute stages of malnutrition unless targeted assistance is sustained.
Experts have said the North's food shortages may get worse after devastating floods washed away tens of thousands of hectares of farmland in the North in recent months.
The North has relied on international handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that was estimated to have killed 2 million people. (Yonhap)