Pit Heltmann: Diplomacy in North Korea before the world shut down

NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park opens this week’s episode by discussing the first session of the new Supreme People’s Assembly, which reappointed Kim Jong Un as North Korea’s head of state and carried out a generational reshuffle of officials. He also discusses Pyongyang’s increasingly hardline rhetoric toward South Korea and the U.S., Kim Yo Jong’s rejection of Japan’s latest diplomatic outreach and the optics of Kim Jong Un’s daughter joining him at a recent military inspection. In the second half of the episode, former German Ambassador to North Korea Pit Heltmann reflects on his time in Pyongyang from 2018 to 2020, offering a rare look into diplomatic life inside the country and how engagement changed during the early days of the pandemic. The interview explores the challenges of diplomacy in the DPRK, the limitations on international engagement and aid projects and the factors complicating a potential reopening of the German Embassy. Pit Heltmann is a career German diplomat who served as the country’s ambassador in Pyongyang from 2018-2020, making him the last resident envoy before North Korea’s self-imposed COVID-19 closure. He later served as consul general in Shanghai before retiring in 2024.  About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.