Advertisement

Top UN official sets off for North Korea visit amid escalating tensions over missile programme

Jeffrey Feltman arrived in a UN-flagged car at Beijing’s international airport on Tuesday morning before flying to Pyongyang

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting a tired factory this month. A senior UN official will visit the country this week. Photo: KCNA via AFP

A senior United Nations official travelled to North Korea on Tuesday for a rare visit aimed at defusing soaring tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

Advertisement

Jeffrey Feltman’s visit – the first by a UN diplomat of his rank since 2010 – comes less than a week after North Korea said it test-fired a new ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States.

Feltman arrived in a UN-flagged car at Beijing’s international airport in the morning before North Korea’s Air Koryo flight took off for Pyongyang in the early afternoon.

His trip comes a day after the United States and South Korea launched their biggest-ever joint air exercise – manoeuvres slammed by Pyongyang as an “all-out provocation”.

The five-day Vigilant Ace drill involves 230 aircraft, including F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighters, and tens of thousands of troops, Seoul’s air force said.

Advertisement

Feltman, the UN’s under secretary general for political affairs, arrived in China on Monday as Beijing is one of the few transit points to North Korea in the world.

Advertisement