North Koreans want to intensify relations with Swiss
North Korea wants to intensify its relationship with Switzerland according to its foreign ministry's second in command.
Choe Su Hon, on an official visit to Bern, said on Friday his government would like to see an increase in investments and humanitarian aid according to the Swiss foreign ministry.
New investors are welcome to try their luck in North Korea, said a ministry spokeswoman. Both countries concluded an agreement on investments in 1998 and another on taxation is being prepared.
For the foreign ministry, Pyongyang’s desire to cooperate is seen as a sign that North Korea is prepared to business with the rest of the world.
Choe Su Hun, who met with the head of the foreign affairs department, Joseph Deiss, also talked with officials about Switzerland’s role in the Korean peace process. The Swiss are members of the body that oversees the peninsula’s cease-fire and they have hosted talks between the two Koreas, China and the United States on a number of occasions since 1997.
Switzerland has been supplying humanitarian aid to the North Koreans since major flooding in 1995. The Swiss have also begun to carry out development work, with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation opening an office there in 1999.
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