Senior UN official’s visit to NK may help ‘break deadlock’

The first visit in six years by a senior UN official to North Korea may help break the deadlock on the Korean Peninsula after tensions have ratcheted up in recent weeks, but it may not be enough to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program, an expert on Asian affairs said.

UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman arrived in Pyongyang for a five-day visit to North Korea on Tuesday, making him the highest-level UN official to visit in more than six years, Reuters reported Tuesday.

China is happy to see the United Nations playing a constructive role in solving the North Korean nuclear issue, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Tuesday in response to Feltman’s trip.

“China’s Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong met with Feltman and exchanged ideas on UN affairs and issues of common concerns,” Geng told a daily briefing on Tuesday.

“Feltman’s visit will help cool the strained tensions on the Korean Peninsula at a time when the US and South Korea are conducting joint military drills right after North Korea’s test of the Hwasong-15 on November 29,” Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Da said that the visit by a senior UN official may break the stalemate in the region, since North Korea neither has trust in the US or its allies nor has listened to China and Russia’s proposals in this regard.

“But it’s uncertain what Feltman can achieve. North Korea has criticized the UN for imposing seven rounds of sanctions on it since 1993. And leader Kim Jong-un may reiterate North Korea’s insistence on having a nuclear program to the international community if he meets Feltman,” Da said.

Feltman will meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and Vice Minister Pak Myong-guk, said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, who added that the visit was in response to “a long-standing invitation from the authorities in Pyongyang for a policy dialogue with the UN,” Reuters reported.

Feltman is the highest-level UN official to visit North Korea in six years since his predecessor Lynn Pascoe visited in February 2010, and former UN aid chief Valerie Amos in October 2011, the UN said.

“Assumptions on possible wars have increased after the US and South Korea imposed more pressure by the ongoing military drills, but the visit may fail to persuade North Korea to give up developing nuclear programs,” Zheng Jiyong, director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.