United Nations (EFE).- North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong arrived in New York on Thursday to participate in the UN General Assembly, marking the regime’s first high-level presence at the forum in seven years, amid Washington’s openness to dialogue and Seoul’s warnings about Pyongyang’s strengthening nuclear program.
The North Korean delegation arrived at New York’s JFK International Airport around midnight from China, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
Kim is expected to deliver a speech on Monday, the final day of the general debate.
Upon leaving the airport, Kim did not answer reporters’ questions, including whether he would hold bilateral meetings with the US, Yonhap said.
North Korea routinely sent its foreign ministers to the General Assembly between 2014 and 2018.
However, following the failed 2019 summit in Hanoi between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, their interventions in the plenary session were relegated to its ambassador to the UN.
Kim Son-gyong’s participation comes in parallel with Trump’s goal of meeting with the North Korean leader “this year” and follows warnings issued Thursday in New York by South Korean President Lee Jae-myung that Pyongyang appears to have sufficient nuclear weapons to guarantee the survival of its regime.
For now, North Korea has offered no official response to the messages of openness sent by Washington or to the gestures of reconciliation promoted by the new South Korean administration, which seeks to revive dialogue on the peninsula.
In his recent address to the General Assembly, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung presented the “E.N.D.” initiative, which aims to resume engagement with Pyongyang, and then “normalize” relations and achieve “denuclearization.” EFE
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