Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis met North Korea’s top diplomat in Pyongyang as Switzerland reopened an office intended to keep official contact with the government active.
Cassis said on X that he and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui discussed political relations and dialogue, as well as security on the Korean Peninsula and wider Eurasian challenges. He said they discussed restoring political dialogue, a topic EconoTimes covered earlier.
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) said the office gives Swiss officials a way to communicate directly with North Korean authorities and continue political discussions. The office has been operational since Oct. 19, the ministry said, while Switzerland’s embassy in Beijing continues to handle diplomatic and consular relations with North Korea.
Al Jazeera reported that Cassis’s trip was the first visit to North Korea by a Swiss government minister since 2003, when then-Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey traveled there. The FDFA dates Switzerland’s political dialogue with North Korea to that year. It also says Switzerland has supported peace efforts on the peninsula through the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission since 1953.
Cassis’s trip was scheduled through Oct. 31, with South Korea also on the itinerary, according to the FDFA.
