Bern reopens its Pyongyang office as Cassis becomes first Swiss minister there since 2003
· BehindLines newsroom
Switzerland is re-establishing a foothold in North Korea. Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), travelled to Pyongyang on 29 and 30 October 2026, then to Seoul on 30 and 31 October. According to Euronews, he is the first Swiss foreign minister to make the trip since 2003.
An office already running since 19 October
The FDFA says the Swiss office in Pyongyang has been operating since 19 October 2026, and Mr Cassis attended its official reopening. It reports to the Swiss embassy in Beijing, which remains responsible for diplomatic and consular relations with North Korea. Euronews recalls that the former humanitarian cooperation office closed in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Bern says it wants to deal directly with North Korean authorities and follow regional developments.
Talks on both sides of the border
In Pyongyang, the minister met Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and Jo Yong Won, a secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. He told the Keystone-ATS news agency he had offered to help facilitate dialogue and ease tensions on the peninsula, an offer that seemed well received to him. North Korea's state news agency KCNA speaks of talks held "in a friendly atmosphere", without detail. In Seoul, he saw National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac and a senior foreign ministry official, Jeong Yeon-du, who hopes the office will help South Korea engage with the North.
A tense backdrop
Euronews adds that North Korea fired around ten short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea on 29 October, according to South Korea's military, a day after Seoul renewed its call for military talks. The two countries have had diplomatic relations since 1974, but regular political consultations stopped after 2019. The FDFA points out that Switzerland has taken part since 1953 in the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission at Panmunjom, and that it is among the few Western countries to have kept up political dialogue with Pyongyang since 2003. The practical outcome of the visit remains to be seen: none of the sources mentions an agreement.