Senior UN official to visit North Korea

A senior United Nations (UN) official is expected to arrive in North Korea on Tuesday, for the first visit of its kind in six years, as US and South Korean military drills make the situation worse.

The UN’s undersecretary general for political affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, is to meet with officials and discuss “issues of mutual interest and concern,” announced the UN.

The visit was announced just days following Pyongyang’s tests of the advanced, long-range ballistic missile.

The last time a senior UN official visited North Korea was in October 2011, for Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie, said the UN. The last time an under secretary general for political affairs visited the country was in February 2010.

Feltman is a key advisor to UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, on global peace and security concerns.

The visit is a response to a “long standing invitation” from the North’s authorities, for political dialogue with the UN, said spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a press on Monday.

Meetings have been confirmed with the country’s foreign minister, diplomatic colleagues and the vice minister.

Six UN agencies are represented in Pyongyang, staffed by a team of 50 people, according to a UN news release.

Noh Kyu-duk, the South Korean foreign ministry spokesman said that Seoul was in close contact with the UN and hopes that Feltman would be able to relay the “international community’s united will that North Korea’s provocation and threat must end.”

Missile drills

The trip coincides with annual Vigilante 18 military drill, held by the US and South Korea, which according to the US air force is designed to boost the “combat effectiveness” of the alliance.

A senior South Korean official said on Monday that the war games will include attacks against a mock North Korean missile launch site, with mock North Korean radars.

(Photo: the Financial Express)

Some 12,000 service members and 230 US and South Korean aircrafts will be participating in the drill. They will also include F-35s and F-22s, in the largest concentration of fifth-generation fighter jets in South Korea.

The country’s state media called the drills “joint war exercises targeting the DPRK.”

“Owing to the US imperialist warmongers’ extremely reckless war hysteria, a grave situation is prevailing in the Korean peninsula that a nuclear war may break out any moment,” said the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).