UN tries with N Korea’s Kim

– A senior United Nations (UN) official travelled to North Korea yesterday for a rare visit aimed at defusing soaring tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

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 afternoon.

His trip comes a day after the US 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.

Feltman, the UN’s under-secretary-general for political affairs, arrived in China on Monday and met with a Chinese vice-foreign minister while in Beijing.

Once in the North, Feltman will discuss “issues of mutual interest and concern” with officials, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, adding he was unable to say whether Feltman will meet with the reclusive state’s leader Kim Jong-Un. –

Beijing