[2] Sweden took part in the Korean War by providing the Swedish Red Cross Field Hospital and participating in the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.

Following the temporary resolution of the war in 1953, Sweden was heavily involved in maintaining the armistice through its position in the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.

[4] In the 1970s,[5] North Korean diplomats were discovered to run smuggling of cigarettes and liquor in Western Europe as part of the country's illicit activities to earn currency.

[6] Swedish prime minister Göran Persson visited North Korea, as the first Western leader in history, in 2001 to head a European Union delegation for talks with then-leader Kim Jong-il.

[2] Swedish companies like Volvo, ASEA, Kockums, Atlas Copco, and Alfa Laval wanted to export their products to the country and held an industrial exhibition in Pyongyang.

[3] During that decade, North Korea imported various items,[10] including about 1,000 Volvo automobiles that were never paid for, prompting Soviet diplomats to call it the "largest car theft in the human history".