ZURICH — Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis will travel to North Korea this week for political talks and for the formal reopening of Switzerland's diplomatic office in Pyongyang, his government said on Monday, Reuters reported. Cassis, whose visit begins on Thursday, will meet North Korean authorities during the formal office opening on 30 October.
Source: Reuters, Oct 26, 2026 — Swiss foreign minister to hold talks in North Korea this week
The talks will include the resumption of bilateral consultations between the two countries' foreign ministries, security on the Korean peninsula and geopolitical issues, Reuters reported. The Pyongyang office reports to the Swiss embassy in Beijing, which retains responsibility for diplomatic and consular relations with North Korea. The office, operational since 19 October, restores Switzerland's permanent diplomatic representation in North Korea.
Source: Reuters, Oct 26, 2026 — Swiss foreign minister to hold talks in North Korea this week
Reuters noted that while Switzerland has actively re-engaged with Pyongyang in recent years, the European Union has essentially frozen out direct dialogue with North Korea. After Pyongyang, Cassis will travel to Seoul for talks with South Korean officials.
Source: Reuters, Oct 26, 2026 — Swiss foreign minister to hold talks in North Korea this week
Switzerland and North Korea established diplomatic relations in 1974, and a Swiss humanitarian cooperation office operated in the country from 1997 until its local staff were withdrawn in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Academic Block's account of the visit. That humanitarian office was not a diplomatic mission, so this week's reopening restores a dedicated Swiss diplomatic outpost in Pyongyang.
Switzerland is one of the very few Western countries keeping a permanent presence in Pyongyang, and its neutral, mediator reputation has historically made Bern a channel when others are not talking to North Korea. Reopening the office — and restarting foreign-ministry consultations — gives Europe at least one working line into Pyongyang at a moment of frozen EU dialogue and rising peninsula tension.