ABSTRACT
The number of Westerners who visited North Korea remained limited. No Western embassies, other than the Swedish one, were ever opened. Quite the opposite, as the staff of both the Western trade offices and the Swedish Embassy was cut down, and sometimes there was no staff at all. The number of Westerners with personal experience of both North and South Korea was even fewer because, although the authorities of neither country prohibited such visitors, they certainly did not particularly welcome them – and had their own subtle methods of making sure their views were respected. Within the Swedish Foreign Ministry, it was primarily the inspector and the medical adviser who had cause, which neither side could find objectionable, to have a good look at embassy working conditions on both sides of the demarcation line. These two found it incomprehensible that they were dealing with the same people.
