(May 28): Singapore’s foreign minister held talks with a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a rare visit to Pyongyang, urging the isolated state to keep channels for dialogue open with the outside world.
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan met Jo Yong Won, who has been at Kim’s side for years, for what the official Korean Central News Agency described in a Thursday dispatch as a conversation “in a friendly atmosphere”.
The Singaporean envoy also met his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui and invited her to attend the Asean Regional Forum, which the city-state will host this year, according to a statement from Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.
Balakrishnan then went to Seoul for talks on Thursday with his South Korean counterpart, Cho Hyun, the first official visit by a Singaporean foreign minister in nearly two decades. After hearing Balakrishnan’s assessment of North Korea, Cho asked Singapore and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to help foster conditions for dialogue with Pyongyang, Cho’s office said.
Travel between the Korean capitals is uncommon for diplomats and could open a channel for the rivals on the divided peninsula. Singapore, however, has not publicly said whether it intends to play such a role.
Singapore has maintained cordial ties with North Korea for decades, but trade between the two has been largely frozen by global sanctions imposed on Pyongyang to punish it for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
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Singapore played a major role in the first summit between a sitting US president and North Korean leader when it hosted a meeting between Donald Trump and Kim in 2018. Balakrishnan even posed for a selfie with Kim when he went out to see the city-state.
Trump has said he’s open to another meeting with Kim, but there has been no indication that one is in the works.
Rachel Minyoung Lee, a senior fellow with the 38 North Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, cautioned against reading too much into the Singaporean envoy’s visit to Pyongyang.
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“North Korea has stepped up efforts to improve ties with Southeast Asian countries since 2024, as it started to reopen its borders and reengage more with the outside world,” said Lee, who has worked as an analyst for the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise.
She added that Kim has made it clear that he views his country as an important world player, which has been highlighted by a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent months. “North Korea wants to be an even more significant regional and global actor, and it is moving proactively to that end,” Lee said.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has sought to restart formal dialogue with North Korea, which has been frozen for years by Pyongyang due to political acrimony. North Korea, meanwhile, has moved to distance itself from its neighbour, which has included revising its constitution to redefine relations — treating South Korea as a separate state and removing the framework for unification.
Before visiting North Korea, Balakrishnan began his trip with a stop in China, where he met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. China has long been North Korea’s biggest benefactor and is also the largest trading partner for South Korea.
Balakrishnan posted on Facebook Thursday that Pyongyang “is a modern, clean, well planned city”, including a video montage of street scenes.
The capital has “continued to make significant progress since I last visited eight years ago”, he wrote. “Busy streets, more cars on the roads, and many new buildings and developments.”
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