President Moon Jae-in and President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset held a summit at Cheong Wa Dae for 35 minutes from 10:00 this morning. They discussed Korea-Switzerland relations, ways to enhance substantive cooperation and measures to work together on North Korea policy.

President Moon expressed his appreciation to the Swiss President for coming to Korea and adding to the success of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, wishing the Swiss national team the best of luck. President Berset responded by saying the entire world was paying attention to Korea, wishing the success of the PyeongChang Winter Games.

President Moon gave high marks to Switzerland for observing compliance with the Armistice Agreement as a member of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, making extraordinary contributions to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. He made a request that the international community, including Switzerland, provide support to ensure the atmosphere for inter-Korean dialogue and reconciliation created on the occasion of the Olympics would continue even after the end of the event.

Noting that Switzerland had special historical ties with the Korean Peninsula, President Berset said representatives of the two Koreas, the United States and China had once met together for talks in Geneva. The Swiss President went on to say that the dialogue for the establishment of a peace regime had to continue after the close of the PyeongChang Olympics, pledging that his country would redouble efforts to set the stage for such talks. In this connection, President Berset said the women`s ice hockey match between Korea and Switzerland on Saturday would be very meaningful. 

President Moon said the unified South-North Korean women`s hockey team, formed for the first time in Olympic history, was drawing keen attention from many people around the world. Noting that the unified team would blaze a trail toward peace and harmony, the President said he hoped both the Korean and Swiss teams would put up a great match.  

The two leaders highly evaluated the fact that head-of-state level exchanges between Korea and Switzerland had become more frequent, including former President Johann Schneider-Ammann’s visit to Korea in July 2016 and the current visit by President Berset. They also agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in different areas, including big data, the healthcare industry and life sciences, in preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.   

Attendees from the Swiss side at the meeting were Swiss Ambassador to Korea Linus von Castelmur; Chief of Staff Michael Braendle; Head of Communications Nicole Lamon; Counselor to the President Veronique Haller, and Ambassador Livia Lew, Delegate of the Federal Council for Trade Agreements and Head of the Bilateral Economic Relations Division. On the Korean side were Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha, Minister of Science and ICT You Young-min, Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neunghoo and Second Deputy Director of National Security Nam Gwan-pyo.