Arne Björnberg

Berndt Arne Björnberg (4 October 1908 – 1 August 1983) was a Swedish diplomat and international civil servant. Born in Uppsala County, he earned his doctorate in political science at Uppsala University in 1940 with a dissertation on Norwegian parliamentarism. He began his career in Swedish government service during the Second World War, working in the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Commission for Economic Postwar Planning. Active in international affairs, he represented Sweden at the International Labour Organization and held leading roles in the United Nations Association of Sweden and UNESCO.

From the late 1940s he combined work in journalism and publishing with posts at the United Nations, serving in New York City as head of the European Section of the United Nations Department of Public Information, and later as a UN technical assistance expert in Bolivia, Tunisia, and Colombia. He returned to Sweden as Director General of the Swedish Agency for International Assistance (1962–1964).

Björnberg went on to serve as Swedish ambassador in Guatemala (1964–1969), with dual accreditation to several Central American states, and in Beijing (1969–1974), also accredited to Phnom Penh and Hanoi. In 1973, after Sweden became the first Western European country to recognize North Korea, he was appointed Sweden’s first ambassador in Pyongyang. He retired in 1974. Provided by Wikipedia