As Ms. Jeffrey mentioned, we have a special agreement with the Australians. We also have three agreements, as far as I know, where we have other countries that are called our “protecting powers”, that are in countries where we cannot be. Each protecting power agreement is slightly different, but the Swedes are our protecting power in North Korea, the Italians in Iran, and the Romanians in Syria. In the case of the Swedes, they have the authority to offer consular services when we ask them to do so.
On October 5th, 2017. See this statement in context.