Swiss foreign minister makes first Pyongyang visit since 2003

Switzerland has formally reopened its diplomatic office in Pyongyang, and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has completed the first visit to North Korea by a Swiss foreign minister since 2003. Cassis held talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and with Jo Yong Won, secretary of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, on October 29 and 30, before travelling to Seoul to brief South Korean officials on what had been said.

The office resumed operations on October 19, restoring a channel that closed in 2020 during the pandemic; its previous incarnation handled humanitarian cooperation. Switzerland and North Korea have maintained diplomatic relations since 1974, with regular political consultations suspended after 2019. Bern said the trip aimed to restore direct political dialogue, and Cassis told the Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS that he had offered Switzerland's help in facilitating talks to ease tensions on the peninsula — a proposal he said appeared to have been well received. KCNA, the North's state news agency, reported that the ministers discussed diplomatic cooperation and international issues in a 'friendly atmosphere' and gave no account of what was actually discussed.

Switzerland's credentials are old ones: Swiss officers have helped monitor the armistice that halted the Korean War since 1953, through the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission based at Panmunjom, and Cassis met the head of the Swiss delegation to discuss the security situation. In Seoul he met national security adviser Wi Sung-lac and briefed senior foreign ministry official Jeong Yeon-du, who expressed hope that the Swiss office would help South Korea engage with the North. At a G20 meeting in Atlanta, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun urged support for dialogue between the two Koreas.

The surroundings were less friendly. South Korea's military said the North fired around ten short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea on October 29, a day after Seoul renewed its call for military talks to prevent accidental border clashes. The same week, the FBI attributed a record $6.3 billion theft from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange to North Korean hackers.

For Pyongyang, a permanent European presence offers something Washington will not: recognition without preconditions, and a modest counterweight to near-total dependence on Beijing and Moscow. For Bern, it offers relevance at a negotiating table the major powers have vacated. What North Korea is paying for the privilege, beyond a 'friendly atmosphere' in the state media, the visit did not establish.

The reopened office in Pyongyang will report to the Swiss embassy in Beijing.