Photo : YONHAP News
Swedish diplomats have returned to work in North Korea, four years after the regime’s border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last Friday, the Swedish foreign ministry said in a press release that Swedish diplomats have been dispatched to Pyongyang and that with their return, the country’s embassy will resume normal operations as it did before the pandemic.
Most countries withdrew their diplomatic missions from Pyongyang after the North’s border closure, and Sweden also followed suit in August 2020.
North Korea re-opened its borders last August, but allowed only pro-North Korea countries such as China, Russia, Mongolia and Cuba, to resume their embassy operations in Pyongyang.
Sweden, the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1973, has been operating an embassy in Pyongyang since 1975. It has also acted as a mediator in Washington-Pyongyang dialogues and provided consular services for Americans on behalf of the United States, which does not have diplomatic relations with the regime.