US Interests in North Korea: Swedish Embassy Returns to Pyongyang Amid Growing Concerns Over Russia’s Rising Influence

The U.S. State Department recently confirmed that Swedish diplomats who returned to Pyongyang are resuming their role in protecting U.S. interests. It expressed concern about signs of expanding security ties between North Korea and Russia. Reporter Ham Ji-ha reports.

“Sweden will continue to serve as a protector of our interests in North Korea,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

A State Department spokesperson gave this answer in a briefing on the 16th when asked, “Has Sweden, which has returned to Pyongyang, resumed its role as a protector of U.S. interests?”

[녹취: 밀러 대변인] “Sweden does continue to be our protective power in the DPRK. We support the return of foreign diplomats to Pyongyang and hope that it will reinvigorate dialogue, diplomacy, and other forms of constructive engagement with the DPRK. We also hope that the DPRK will open its borders to international humanitarian workers whose aid efforts have been hindered by the DPRK’s border closures.”

He continued, “We support the return of diplomats from other countries to Pyongyang, and hope that this will revitalize dialogue, diplomacy, and other forms of constructive engagement with North Korea.”

“We also hope that North Korea will open its borders to international humanitarian workers who are having difficulties providing aid due to North Korea’s border closures,” Miller added.

Earlier, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a press release on the 13th that Swedish diplomats began residing in Pyongyang from that day.

Sweden, which has no diplomatic relations with North Korea and has been providing limited consular services, including access to American detainees, is interpreted to have resumed this role with the return.

Sweden was the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with North Korea, in 1973.

Sweden, which opened an embassy in Pyongyang in 1975, two years later, withdrew its diplomats from North Korea in August 2020, early in the coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, when asked whether the recent meeting between North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un and Russian State Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu would lead to an expansion of security cooperation between the two countries, Spokesperson Miller responded, “We are very concerned about the expansion of security relations between North Korea and Russia.”

[녹취: 밀러 대변인] “We continue to be incredibly concerned by the expanding security relationship between North Korea and Russia, both for the support that North Korea continues to provide to Russia to prosecute its illegal war against Ukraine and for the prospect of Russia assisting ways assisting North Korea in ways that ultimately will be destabilizing to the Korean Peninsula.”

He explained, “This is because North Korea continues to support Russia in its illegal war against Ukraine, and because there is a prospect that Russia will ultimately support North Korea in a way that will destabilize the Korean Peninsula.”

According to North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency and other sources, Secretary Shoigu met with Chairman Kim on the 13th. Their meeting took place on the first anniversary of the summit between Chairman Kim and President Putin.

The Russian State Security Council said that Secretary Shoigu and Chairman Kim discussed a wide range of issues during their meeting, and assessed that the meeting would make an important contribution to implementing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement signed between North Korea and Russia in June.

This is Ham Ji-ha from VOA News.