As of: February 27, 2024, 9:41 p.m
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A delegation from the Foreign Office is currently on an inspection trip to North Korea.
However, Kim Jong-un's dictatorship remains largely isolated.
After a break of almost four years, Germany has sent a delegation to North Korea again.
When asked, a spokesman for the Foreign Office in Berlin confirmed: “A team from the Foreign Office is currently on a technical inspection trip to Pyongyang.
It inspected the German embassy premises over several days.” The site
NK News
first reported.
The German embassy in Pyongyang was closed in March 2020 after dictator Kim Jong-un closed North Korea's borders at the beginning of the corona pandemic.
It remains uncertain whether the German embassy in the North Korean capital will resume operations in the near future.
The Foreign Office emphasized that the current delegation trip “does not represent a preliminary decision about a possible reopening of the embassy”.
North Korea is the only country in the world that has still not fully opened up to the outside world after the end of the pandemic.
North Korean citizens were unable to return to their home country from abroad for more than three years;
For years, North Koreans have only been able to leave the dictatorially ruled country with a special permit.
Homage to Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il: People visit the huge statues of North Korea's founder and his son in the center of Pyongyang.
© Kim Won Jin/AFP
Close allies: North Korea and China
Diplomatic contact between the government in Pyongyang and foreign countries largely came to a standstill during the pandemic.
In March last year, the new Chinese ambassador to Pyongyang became probably the first foreign diplomat to re-enter North Korea.
Today, it is estimated that only about a dozen countries have diplomatic missions in Pyongyang.
North Korea maintains diplomatic relations in particular with its large neighbor China.
At the end of January, the deputy foreign ministers of both countries met for talks in Pyongyang.
Both governments expressed the desire to “deepen traditional friendship and practical cooperation,” according to the Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
North Korea supplies weapons and ammunition to Russia
Relations between Pyongyang and Moscow are particularly close.
In April last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited North Korea, and shortly afterwards Kim Jong-un traveled to Russia's Far East to meet with Vladimir Putin.
The US and South Korean intelligence agencies suspect that North Korea has been supplying Russia with ammunition and ballistic missiles for months that are used in the Ukraine war.
According to the US State Department, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 containers of ammunition and other materials to Russia since September last year.
The fact that “North Korea is exporting ballistic missiles and Russia is procuring them” represents “a direct violation of relevant resolutions” of the UN Security Council, according to the G7 countries, as it said in a statement on the second anniversary of the start of the war.
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Russian tourists are also traveling to North Korea again; around 100 Russians visited the neighboring country at the beginning of February.
The German Foreign Office is currently “strongly” advising against traveling to North Korea.
(sh)
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