▲ This file photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 22, 2024, shows Swedish Ambassador to North Korea Andreas Bengtsson (L) shaking hands with Choe Ryong-hae, then chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

N Korea envoy-Sweden

N. Korea appoints new ambassador to Sweden

SEOUL, April 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has named a new ambassador to Sweden, the North's foreign ministry said Saturday, in the latest appointment of envoys overseas.

Kim Chol-hae has been appointed as Pyongyang's new top envoy to Sweden, the ministry said on its website, after naming its new ambassadors to Britain and Indonesia earlier this week.

Sweden has traditionally served as an intermediary for talks between the United States and North Korea, and was the first Western country to establish diplomatic ties with Pyongyang in 1973.

Sweden also was the first Western country to resume diplomatic operations in Pyongyang following the COVID-19 pandemic when the North closed its borders.

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