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Sweden’s Foreign Minister calls US-North Korea agreement a ‘victory for diplomacy’

Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström on Tuesday described an agreement signed by the leaders of the US and North Korea as "a victory for diplomacy".

Published: 12 June 2018 17:31 CEST

Sweden's Foreign Minister calls US-North Korea agreement a 'victory for diplomacy'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands on Tuesday. Photo: AP Photo/Evan Vucci/TT

US President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in an historic summit in Singapore, where they signed a document including a pledge from Kim to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.

Some observers have criticized the agreement as vague in its wording, and Wallström said it was important that it lead to “concrete changes”, but described it nonetheless as a “clear victory for diplomacy”.

The Swedish Foreign Minister told reporters she was “optimistic but mildly sceptical” about the agreement, according to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

“It has been an exciting day of interesting results, and now comes the test, which is to implement this agreement and see what it contains in all its details,” the politician told SVT.

“It's almost a miracle if you look back a year at how the insults and the war of words looked, and now they're affirming their friendship and respect for each other — so let's see,” she said.

JUST FOR MEMBERS: What exactly is Sweden doing in North Korea?

Wallström also commented on the summit on Twitter, writing: “Welcome US-DPRK agreement. Goal remains DPRK’s complete de-nuclearization and sustainable peace. Now words have to be translated into action. SE ready to support.”

Sweden has a long-standing relationship with North Korea, where it was the first Western country to open an embassy in the 1970s. The embassy today represents US, Canadian, and Australian diplomatic interests in the country.

Sweden is also one of the world's biggest givers of humanitarian aid to North Korea, and there are even Swedish soldiers at the Korean border as part of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.

In May, Wallström met North Korea's Minister for Foreign Affairs Ri Yong-Ho in Stockholm, a development that at the time sparked discussion of whether the US-North Korea summit could take place in the Scandinavian nation.

READ ALSO: North Korea owes Sweden millions for Volvos from the 1970s

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FACT CHECK: Has the EU really banned Swedes from lighting bonfires?

What’s happened?

On April 6th, TV4 Nyheter published a story claiming that burning twigs and leaves in private gardens has been illegal since the beginning of the year, due to new EU rules.

“A common habit for gardeners during their spring cleaning is now banned. An EU law which came into force at the beginning of the year demands that all food and garden waste are sorted separately,” the article states, quoting Milla Sundström, an administrator from the waste and chemicals unit of the Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) as saying this “indirectly” bans spring fires.

Sundström added that the ban is enforced by local councils, so rules may differ.

Wait… why is it so important for Swedes to burn twigs in their gardens?

It’s a common way of getting rid of the leaves and branches that have accumulated over the last year, with the ashes often used as fertiliser in the garden. It’s usually only allowed for a couple of weeks a year in spring and again in the autumn, and during Valborg at the end of April, when it’s traditional to light a spring bonfire.

Quite a lot of people in Sweden live in pretty remote areas, so it’s much easier for them to get rid of bulky garden waste by burning it rather than having to drive it off to the nearest recycling centre.

So has burning garden waste been banned by the EU?

Technically, no.

The EU law says that member states should “encourage the recycling, including composting and digestion, of bio-waste”, as well as encourage home composting and promoting the use of materials produced by bio-waste, but it doesn’t say anything about banning fires.

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Center Party MEP Emma Wiesner wrote on X, before blaming the government for interpreting the law incorrectly.

“Banning tidying up in your own garden has clearly NOT been the EU’s intention. The inability of the government and authorities to implement the simplest of directives is embarrassing and adds to the contempt for politicians,” she added.

So who has banned fires on private property?

In a regulation from December 22nd, 2022 signed by Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari, the government writes that exemptions “from the prohibition on the incineration of separately collected waste” may be granted in the case of public events.

This refers to a separate law governing waste, which states that “waste that has been collected separately to be prepared for reuse or recycling should not be incinerated”.

This regulation came into effect on January 1st, 2024.

Wait… what does that even mean?

Admittedly, the regulation isn’t particularly clear. Having said that, the new rules on bonfires appear to stem from Naturvårdsverket interpreting this regulation as an outright ban.

“The new regulations mean that garden waste must be composted on-site, left at a recycling centre, or collected by the council,” it writes in a post on its website dated April 11th. “In practice, this means that it is no longer permitted to burn branches, leaves and other garden waste”.

Naturvårdsverket claims that this is “part of the introduction of the EU’s waste directive, which means that bio-waste should primarily be recycled”.

It does, however, add that local councils are able to grant exceptions, “for example if it’s a long way to the closest recycling centre”.

So whose fault is it?

Energy and business minister Ebba Busch, who is head of the climate and business ministry, seemed to indicate in a post on X that the confusion was due to the badly-worded rules introduced by the government at the beginning of the year, which were designed to coincide with the EU’s waste directive.

“I want to be clear and say that the government has not introduced a new ban against burning garden waste,” she wrote, alongside a picture of her standing in front of a fire in her own garden.

“There are new rules, but not any huge changes compared to how it’s worked in the past. We can see that these can be interpreted in different ways. For that reason, the rules will be clarified,” she added.

Can I burn twigs in my garden then?

Maybe.

Despite politicians sharing posts telling you to “Keep calm and keep lighting fires,” you should check with your municipality before you do so.

Some, like Halmstad, have interpreted the new regulations as meaning that you can still light a fire in your own garden, while others require you to apply for an exemption (which usually includes paying a fee), whether you’re applying for a May bonfire or just want to burn some leaves in your own garden.

Others, like Värmdö municipality, allow you to burn things like twigs and small branches in your garden, while stating that grass and leaves should be composted.

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