[FRIENDS FOR DECADES] Swiss envoy shares tales of friendship spanning 60 years and beyond

Diplomacy

Published: 28 Jan. 2024, 13:33 Updated: 28 Jan. 2024, 18:31

[FRIENDS FOR DECADES] Swiss envoy shares tales of friendship spanning 60 years and beyond

Swiss Ambassador to Korea Dagmar Schmidt Tartagli speaks with the Korea JoongAng Daily in her office at the Swiss Hanok in Seoul recently. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Few people know that the last emperor of Korea had a Swiss hostess to organize receptions for foreign guests on the palace grounds.

“In 1900, during his travels in East Asia, the Swiss adventurer Max Huber met a Swiss maid at the imperial court in Seoul,” Ambassador Dagmar Schmidt Tartagli of Switzerland told the Korea JoongAng Daily at the embassy in Seoul recently. “The young lady was apparently employed as a hostess for foreign receptions held by the last Joseon emperor, Sunjong, at this palace in Seoul.”

Or that a group of Korean independence fighters released an article in the Swiss national newspaper, the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, calling for Korea’s independence during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of Korea.

These are but a few of the many stories the Swiss Embassy revisited in celebrating the 60th anniversary of Switzerland-Korea ties throughout last year.

The embassy, renovated in 2019 as the “Swiss Hanok” to embody traditional Swiss and Korean architectural characteristics, sits on the very spot the Swiss government purchased within a few years of establishing official diplomatic relations with Korea in 1963.

Many changes have taken place since then. Korea went from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest, so the embassy's surroundings in the heart of Seoul have transformed.

But some things have stayed the same.

Switzerland is one of few European countries today that remains neutral, a policy it adopted in the 16th century. It continues to represent the United Nations’ interest in maintaining peace between the two Koreas as a member of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), a service it has continued since the conclusion of the Korean War in 1953.

“A total of 146 soldiers were flown in at once after the armistice was signed,” the Swiss envoy said, adding that they helped maintain peace and tended to repatriation issues as part of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission.

Despite the changing security dynamics in Europe with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland has not abandoned its policy of neutrality, and the export of lethal weapons is not part of its broader support for Ukraine.

Nevertheless, the envoy said, neutrality has not prevented Switzerland from condemning Russia’s military aggression, a grave violation of international law.

“For Switzerland, international law and universal values, and not power politics, are the guidelines of our foreign policy,” Schmidt Tartagli said. “This is also the guiding principle of our membership in the Security Council: We call it holding the line.”

Switzerland has adopted all EU sanctions against Russia, including the latest in December 2023. Under Swiss legislation, the government may enact compulsory measures to implement sanctions ordered by the UN, the OSCE, or Switzerland’s most significant trading partners, which serve to secure compliance with international law and, in particular, the respect for human rights, the envoy said.

“Our policy of neutrality, as stated in the 1993 white paper, is not applied to economic sanctions, in line with internationally codified neutrality law,” she said, adding that “Switzerland is ready to actively contribute to a solution to the conflict through its good offices, including at the UN Security Council.”

Switzerland and Korea are serving as nonpermanent council members in 2024. Switzerland began its two-year term at the beginning of 2023.

To count the milestones of Switzerland and Korea’s 60 years of friendship last year, the Korea JoongAng Daily sat down with Schmidt Tartagli, who told tales of designers, activists, officers and scientists who continue to bridge the 9,000 miles between the two nations.

The Edelweiss of Switzerland and Mugunghwa (Hibiscus) of the Republic of Korea walk side by side with their arms around each other in the logo for the 60th anniversary of Swiss-Korea relations designed by Swiss design studio Balmer Hahlen. [SWISS EMBASSY IN KOREA]

Where innovation blooms

When President Yoon Suk Yeol visited Switzerland last year to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, he stopped by the globally renowned university ETH Zurich.

Meeting with a group of experts on quantum physics and theory at the university, which has produced dozens of Nobel laureates like Albert Einstein and John von Neumann, Yoon voiced his hopes for closer cooperation between Korea and Switzerland’s quantum physicists.

“Korea is very much advanced in the digital transformation of society, and Switzerland has been working on advancements in AI and quantum computing, making each other very good partners in these fields,” Schmidt Tartagli said.

In recent years, Switzerland and Korea have forged significant partnerships in the health care sector, including the agreement between the Basel Area Business and Innovation and the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association that have opened more opportunities for more Korean pharmaceutical companies to come to Switzerland.

A forum on urbanism in Seoul and Basel organized at the Swiss Hanok on Oct. 16, 2023. [BENOIT EBENER]

The two countries also signed an agreement on research in life science, digital transformation, and quantum technologies last year in a meeting presided over by Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin and Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho at the Embassy’s annual lighthouse event, the Swiss-Korean Innovation Week.

Keeping to this spirit, the Swiss Embassy in Seoul designated “Where innovation blooms” as the 60th-anniversary slogan. The official logo design was chosen through a design exchange program for Swiss and Korean designers and the Korean Embassy in Berne.

The joint jury selected the work of Swiss design studio Balmer Hahlen, which transformed the representative flowers from the two nations — the Edelweiss of Switzerland and the Mugunghwa of the Republic of Korea — into two flower figures walking side by side with their arms around each other.

Helvetica and Hangul

Collaborations between Swiss and Korean designers span a broad spectrum, even in the design of fonts.

Helvetica, the font invented by Swiss designers Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, is a popular style for many designers in Korea.

Even the font used in official posters for the historic Summer Olympics in 1988 in Seoul — the global event that put Korea on some people's minds for the first time — was Helvetica.

To celebrate such history, the Swiss Embassy, with the Korea Foundation, organized an exhibition from September to October last year dedicated to Helvetica and Hangul, the “Hangul Helvetica Summit.”

The opening of the exhibition ‘Hangul Helvetica Summit’, co-hosted by the Swiss Embassy and Korea Foundation, on Sept. 5, 2023, at the KF Gallery in Seoul. [SWISS EMBASSY IN SEOUL]

“The exhibition showcased how Helvetica gained global popularity, beginning with its boom among designers in the U.S. in the 1960s and ’70s, as well as contemporary examples of Hangul fonts inspired by Helvetica,” Schmidt Tartagli said.

Lee Yong-jae, a Hangul font designer, shared the details of the invention process of his new font, which incorporates both Hangul and Helvetica characteristics, at the exhibition, creating a typeface called Susa60.

Collaborations between designers from Korea and Switzerland continue in other forms. Many Korean designers have ties to Switzerland from their studies in Basel, Lausanne and other Swiss cities.

For instance, the Gwangju Biennale and the Seoul Architecture Biennale hosted Swiss pavilions last year, and the cities of Basel and Seoul, sister cities since 2022, have also enjoyed a close exchange in urban planning and architecture.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary, the embassy also brought together industrial, graphic and fashion designers from both countries for a series of “Swiss Design Talks.”

Security on both continents

Though thousands of miles apart, the two countries may have converging security interests as multiple parts of the world battle invasions or threats of invasions.

Their security ties date back to Aug. 1, 1953 — just a few days after the Korean War armistice was signed — when over 140 Swiss soldiers arrived in South Korea.

The Swiss NNSC delegation delivered a 70-year-old copy of the Korean War armistice agreement to Gyeonggi's provincial government to make it accessible to the public. [SWISS EMBASSY IN SEOUL]

“The U.S. had asked Switzerland, already in 1951, about serving in the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission,” Schmidt Tartagli said. “That was the beginning of our history with international peacekeeping.”

The commission’s work has changed over the years, as North Korea expelled the Czech and Polish components in the 1990s.

Sweden, another member of the commission with Switzerland, also pursued a policy of neutrality for decades until nearly two years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Sweden is in the final stages of joining NATO, but the change will not impact its position on the commission, Schmidt Tartagli said.

She added that the commission’s requirement remains the same: any country that did not fight in the Korean War is considered a neutral state under the Armistice Agreement and can monitor the agreement's implementation as an impartial observer.

“The commission will continue to provide its services for security and stability on the Peninsula,” she said.

Pyongyang has been ramping up its military provocations at the border in recent years. Following its launch of a spy satellite last year, the two Koreas walked back their military agreement of 2018.

Butterfly effect

It is unclear when the first Swiss arrived in Korea or when the first Koreans arrived in Switzerland.

“There were Swiss missionaries in Korea and Korean independence fighters in Switzerland,” the envoy said. “Although the exact timings of their arrivals are unclear, some of these records are a testament to the steady flow of people between our two countries.”

The Ministry of National Defense honor guards carry the remains of independence activist Lee Han-ho returned from Switzerland to Korea at Incheon International Airport on Nov. 15, 2022. Lee carried out independence movements in the Jiandao region of China in 1919 against the Japanese occupation of Korea. [NEWS1]

In another such testament, Emperor Sunjong’s Swiss watch surfaced in an auction in Korea a few years ago, providing another clue about the last emperor of Korea and his affinity for the Swiss and their inventions.

The people-to-people exchanges continue today, especially among young people.

“More than 100 Swiss students a year come to Korea, drawn to its spirit of education, innovation, and creativity,” Schmidt Tartagli said.

These exchanges on the grassroots level would have lasting impacts, coming to full circle one day, as she witnessed earlier in her ambassadorship in Korea.

In 2022, Schmidt Tartagli received the remains of Lee Han-ho, who fought for Korean independence in Europe after his studies in Switzerland. Having spent his life for the cause, Lee died at the age of 65 and was buried in Switzerland.

“It was an honor to witness his return and a proud moment for Switzerland and Korea,” the envoy said.