Switzerland reopens Pyongyang office as Ignazio Cassis holds talks with North Korea

Office reopened, talks held in Pyongyang

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis ended a two-day visit to Pyongyang on Friday, 30 October, a trip meant to restart political dialogue with the government of Kim Jong Un. Bern marked the formal reopening of its diplomatic office in the North Korean capital during the visit. The office has been operating again since 19 October, but it has no ambassador and reports to the Swiss embassy in Beijing, which keeps responsibility for diplomatic and consular ties with Pyongyang. The office had shut in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cassis, who is also Switzerland's vice president, called the reopening a tangible measure to deepen direct contact with North Korea.

Talks with Choe Son Hui and a party secretary

In Pyongyang Cassis met Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and Jo Yong Won, a secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. In a post on X he said the talks covered normalising political relations and resuming political dialogue, and also touched on security on the Korean Peninsula and wider security challenges across Eurasia. North Korea's state news agency KCNA confirmed his arrival on 29 October but gave no details of the purpose of the trip. Before the visit it was unclear whether he would see Kim Jong Un, and no such meeting has been reported. The last Swiss federal councillor to visit North Korea was Micheline Calmy-Rey, then foreign minister, in 2003.

Seoul leg and the German chancellor's remarks

Cassis crossed into South Korea on Friday, 30 October, for the final leg of the trip. His talks in Seoul, scheduled for Friday, 30 October, and Saturday, 31 October, are to cover peninsula security, prospects for easing regional tension, and bilateral relations. Switzerland's engagement on the peninsula goes back more than 70 years, from its role on the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission to later mediation work. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was also in South Korea, and near the demilitarised zone at the inter-Korean border he spoke about German reunification, which happened 36 years ago. He said the German experience had come up several times in his talks in Seoul.

“Let us hope that Korea, too, will one day have the chance to regain its national unity.”

Merz added that the suffering caused by division was visible at the border and that the desire for reunification felt strong there, at least in that part of the peninsula.

Switzerland's good offices tradition

Switzerland's 'good offices' are deeply rooted in the history of the modern federal state, and for a long time their core was maximum discretion, according to political scientist Michael Hermann. He said the offices came almost from the system itself and were not tied to any single person. Since the turn of the millennium, Swiss foreign ministers have put their diplomatic efforts more into the spotlight, and this has sometimes drawn sharp criticism. Hermann placed the real turning point in the 1990s debate over dormant assets, when the Swiss reputation for discretion acquired a new reading built on silence, waiting and cherry-picking. FDP National Councillor Hans-Peter Portmann told 20 Minuten that Swiss mediation makes sense but warned against becoming part of a circus-like show, a reference to Donald Trump's friendship with Kim Jong Un.