The United Nations’ political affairs chief will visit North Korea this week, making the highest-level visit by a UN official in more than six years as tensions grip the region over Pyongyang’s nuclear and weapons programs.
Jeffrey Feltman, a former senior official of the US State Department, will visit from Tuesday to Friday and meet with officials to discuss “issues of mutual interest and concern,” the United Nations said.
He will meet with North Korea Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Minister Pak Myong Guk, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, adding that the visit was in response to “a long-standing invitation from the authorities in Pyongyang for a policy dialogue with the UN.”
“He will also meet with the United Nations Country Team and members of the diplomatic corps, as well as visit UN project sites,” Dujarric told reporters, adding that Feltman was also visiting China.
Feltman will be the first senior UN official to travel to North Korea since his predecessor Lynn Pascoe visited in February 2010 and former UN aid chief Valerie Amos visited in October 2011, the United Nations said.
The visit comes at a time of high tension over North Korea’s program to develop nuclear tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States, including the test of Pyongyang’s largest intercontinental ballistic missile last week.