The United Nations' political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman is visiting Pyongyang in North Korea this week in a bid to ease growing tensions following the testing of the country's most powerful missile to date.
Last week North Korea successfully tested a missile capable of reaching continental US, and since then the political climate has significantly worsened, giving fresh impetus for efforts by the international community to find a peaceful resolution.
It looks likely that Mr Feltman's visit will pave the way for a visit by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, who has put himself forward as an intermediary in the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.
The UN said Mr Feltman, who was formerly a senior member of George W Bush’s state department, would travel to North Korea for four days to discuss “issues of mutual interest and concern”.
En route to Pyongyang, Mr Feltman stopped in Beijing and met Chinese deputy foreign minister Li Baodong. China sent its own envoy, Song Tao, to North Korea last month, but he did not meet leader Kim Jong-un.
The Donald Trump administration has said it wants a diplomatic solution but it has refused to rule out military options. The US and South Korea are currently staging their biggest-ever joint airforce drills.
Verbal sparring
The US president has engaged in a verbal sparring match with Mr Kim, calling him “Mr Rocketman”. The North Koreans in turn have called Mr Trump “insane” and a “mentally deranged dotard”.
Russian diplomats have said that Pyongyang has agreed to dialogue but only if Washington recognises North Korea as a nuclear state, something that Mr Trump has vowed will not happen.
Mr Feltman is scheduled to meet North Korea foreign minister Ri Yong-ho and vice-minister Pak Myong-guk, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, although he is not due to meet Mr Kim.
“It will be a wide-ranging discussion,” said Mr Dujarric, following a “long-standing invitation from the authorities in Pyongyang for a policy dialogue with the UN”.
It is the highest level visit by a UN official in more than six years, when previous political affairs chief Lynn Pascoe visited in 2010 and aid boss Valerie Amos visited a year later. The last time a UN secretary general visited North Korea was Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1993.
Sanctions
The UN’s Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions on North Korea that have been widely criticised in media there. However, in September, North Korea invited the UN to send a representative to engage in “policy dialogue”.
Mr Feltman will also visit UN projects in North Korea during his visit, which runs until Friday, and meet diplomats there. UN projects in North Korea include Unicef and the World Food Programme.
