STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho will visit Sweden in the near future and meet with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported on Friday, citing sources.

A Swedish foreign ministry spokesman and a spokesman for Wallstrom both declined to comment.

Sweden’s embassy in Pyongyang represents U.S. diplomatic interests in North Korea in the absence of U.S. diplomatic relations with the country.

The report comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Friday he was prepared to hold an unprecedented meeting with Kim Jong Un following an invitation from the North Korean leader.

The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has limited the options for the two sides to reduce tensions over North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Sweden, however, was the first Western European nation to set up an embassy in Pyongyang, in 1975, and it has been acting on behalf of other western states in dealing with the secretive government in North Korea.

Sweden has been taking an increasingly active role in international talks related to North Korea behind the scenes Dagens Nyheter reported, citing sources.</s>North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho will visit Sweden in the near future and meet with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported on Friday, citing sources.

A Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman and a spokesman for Wallstrom both declined to comment.

Sweden’s Embassy in Pyongyang represents U.S. diplomatic interests in North Korea in the absence of U.S. diplomatic relations with the country.

The report comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier Friday that he was prepared to hold an unprecedented meeting with Kim Jong Un following an invitation from the North Korean leader.

The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has limited the options for the two sides to reduce tensions over North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Sweden, however, was the first Western European nation to set up an embassy in Pyongyang, in 1975, and it has been acting on behalf of other western states in dealing with the secretive government in North Korea.

Sweden has been taking an increasingly active role in international talks related to North Korea behind the scenes Dagens Nyheter reported, citing sources.</s>STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho will visit Sweden in the near future and meet with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported on Friday, citing sources.

A Swedish foreign ministry spokesman and a spokesman for Wallstrom both declined to comment.

Sweden’s embassy in Pyongyang represents U.S. diplomatic interests in North Korea in the absence of U.S. diplomatic relations with the country.

The report comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Friday he was prepared to hold an unprecedented meeting with Kim Jong Un following an invitation from the North Korean leader.

The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has limited the options for the two sides to reduce tensions over North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

Sweden, however, was the first Western European nation to set up an embassy in Pyongyang, in 1975, and it has been acting on behalf of other western states in dealing with the secretive government in North Korea.

Sweden has been taking an increasingly active role in international talks related to North Korea behind the scenes Dagens Nyheter reported, citing sources.</s>STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho will visit Sweden in the near future and meet with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported on Friday, citing sources.

A Swedish foreign ministry spokesman and a spokesman for Wallstrom both declined to comment.

 Sweden's embassy in Pyongyang represents U.S. diplomatic interests in North Korea in the absence of U.S. diplomatic relations with the country.

 The report comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Friday he was prepared to hold an unprecedented meeting with Kim Jong Un following an invitation from the North Korean leader.

 The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has limited the options for the two sides to reduce tensions over North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons programs. 

 Sweden, however, was the first Western European nation to set up an embassy in Pyongyang, in 1975, and it has been acting on behalf of other western states in dealing with the secretive government in North Korea.

 Sweden has been taking an increasingly active role in international talks related to North Korea behind the scenes Dagens Nyheter reported, citing sources.

 

 

 (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Larry King)</s>STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho will visit Sweden in the near future and meet with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported on Friday, citing sources.

A Swedish foreign ministry spokesman and a spokesman for Wallstrom both declined to comment.

Sweden’s embassy in Pyongyang represents U.S. diplomatic interests in North Korea in the absence of U.S. diplomatic relations with the country.

The report comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Friday he was prepared to hold an unprecedented meeting with Kim Jong Un following an invitation from the North Korean leader.

The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has limited the options for the two sides to reduce tensions over North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

Sweden, however, was the first Western European nation to set up an embassy in Pyongyang, in 1975, and it has been acting on behalf of other western states in dealing with the secretive government in North Korea.

Sweden has been taking an increasingly active role in international talks related to North Korea behind the scenes Dagens Nyheter reported, citing sources.</s>Ri Yong Ho is expected to meet Swedish counterpart Margot Wallström "in the near future", diplomatic sources told the daily Dagens Nyheter, without specifying what they would discuss.

Contacted by AFP, the Swedish foreign ministry refused to comment.

The report comes after Trump floored his own advisors when he agreed to accept an offer to meet nuclear-armed dictator Kim before the end of May.

One issue to be resolved is where those talks will take place.

Sweden's embassy in Pyongyang represents US, Canadian and Australian diplomatic interests in North Korea and plays a key role in liaising diplomatic talks.

Trump thanked Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven for Stockholm's efforts to negotiate the release of US student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested for stealing propaganda material during a 2016 trip to Pyongyang and later died when he returned to his country.

Washington has long insisted that it will not allow Pyongyang to continue building and testing a nuclear arsenal. Kim's regime boasts it is now capable of delivering thermonuclear warheads to US cities.

READ ALSO: What exactly is Sweden doing in North Korea?</s>“If we can help in any way, we will do it,” Löfven said at a press conference after meeting Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.

Sweden and Switzerland are the two main hosts that have been floated for the meeting announced by Trump last week, although the de-militarised zone between North and South Korea and Mongolia have also been mooted.

In an interview with Sweden's TT newswire, Löfven pointed to his country’s role as a "protecting power” for the US in North Korea, an arrangement which enables US diplomats to use Sweden’s Pyongyang embassy as a base and conduit for communicating with the closed dictatorship.

“I don’t want to speculate too much about what that might mean,” Löfven said of the help Sweden was willing to give, in an interview with Sweden's TT newswire.

“But the fact that we are a protecting power for the US, have been at the border since the 1950s, and have had an embassy in Pyongyang since the start of the 1970s has given us a relationship with North Korea in which we feel they trust us.”

Sweden has been named as a possible venue for the meeting by the US's Washington Post newspaper, broadcaster ABC News, and others.

But Löfven stressed that Sweden was not a power player in North Korea, who had significant influence over either the North or the South.

“One must remember that the key actors remain North and South Korea, the USA and China,” he said. “It is they who essentially must find a way forward.”</s>Kathmandu, September 9: Ahead of the state visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ to India, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat will travel to New Delhi on Sunday to lay the ground for the visit.

Prime Minister Prachanda is embarking on a four-day state visit to India from September 15 during which he will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

The two Prime Ministers will meet in Hyderabad House on September 16 for a one-on-one meeting followed by the signing of several agreements.

Prachanda will pay a courtesy call on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and meet other senior Indian politicians during his visit.

Mahat will hold talks with senior Indian officials, including his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and others, and will discuss about the preparations and agenda of the prime ministerial visit.

This will be Mahat’s first foreign visit after assuming office. Mahat will return home on Tuesday.

“I will meet some other ministers with whom I need to discuss some projects and areas of cooperation that we are working with India,” Mahat said.

After apprising the PM about the Indian “tone” about the forthcoming visit, the final agenda of the visit will be finalised.

Similarly, Prime Minister Prachanda said on Friday that his India visit would focus on strengthening bilateral ties as well as making balanced and friendly relations with India.</s>Two senior South Korean officials who met with North Korea's Kim Jong Un last week will split up to meet with leaders of China and Japan this week, a South Korean presidential official says.

Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a mobile message that National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong will meet with China's Xi Jinping on Monday while spy agency chief Suh Hoon will speak with Japan's Shinzo Abe on Tuesday.

Chung and Suh will leave for China and Japan separately on Monday to discuss their visit to North Korea with officials there. Chung is also scheduled to visit Russia after his trip to Beijing, but the details of that have yet to be announced.

The two officials returned on Sunday from a visit to the United States where an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for dialogue on his nuclear program was delivered to US President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed to meet with Kim and the two are expected to have the meeting some time before the end of May, although a time and place has not been set.

A Blue House official told reporters earlier on Sunday the truce village of Panmunjom at the inter-Korean border is a strong candidate for the US-North Korea summit. Kim will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom before the end of April for the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade.

Other locations being floated in the media for the meeting between Trump and Kim include Switzerland, Sweden and the South Korean resort island of Jeju.

Officials from North Korea and the United States will speak directly with each other, while South Korea will be asked to consult with both, the South Korean official said.</s>Two senior South Korean officials who met with North Korea's Kim Jong Un last week will split up to visit the leaders of China and Japan this week to update them on the talks, a South Korean presidential official said on Sunday.

Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a mobile message that National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong will meet with China's Xi Jinping on Monday, while spy agency chief Suh Hoon, accompanied by one of Chung's deputies Nam Gwan-pyo, will speak with Japan's Shinzo Abe on Tuesday.

Chung and Suh will leave for China and Japan separately on Monday to discuss their visit to North Korea with officials there. Chung is also scheduled to visit Russia after his trip to Beijing, but the details of that have yet to be announced.

The two officials returned on Sunday from a visit to the United States where an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for dialogue on his nuclear programme was delivered to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed to meet with Kim and the two are expected to have the meeting some time before the end of May, although a time and place has not been set.

A Blue House official told reporters earlier on Sunday the truce village of Panmunjom at the inter-Korean border is a strong candidate for the U.S.-North Korea summit. Kim will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom before the end of April for the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade.

Other locations being floated in the media for the meeting between Trump and Kim include Switzerland, Sweden and the South Korean resort island of Jeju.

Officials from North Korea and the United States will speak directly with each other, while South Korea will be asked to consult with both, the South Korean official said.

Trump said on Saturday his planned meeting with Kim Jong Un could end quickly without an agreement or could result in "the greatest deal for the world" to ease nuclear tensions between the two countries.

"I may leave fast" if progress does not seem possible, Trump said at a campaign rally for Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone in western Pennsylvania. Trump said he believed North Korea wanted to make peace and that: "I think it's time."
North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong-ho will visit Sweden and meet with Deputy Prime Minister Margot Wallström.