PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — A senior United Nations official on a rare high-level visit to North Korea held talks with the North's foreign minister on Thursday.
Jeffrey Feltman, the U.N. undersecretary-general for
political affairs, met with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on the second
full day of the highest-level U.N. visit to the North since 2010. He
arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday for a stay expected to last four or five
days.
It's not immediately known what the two discussed.
According to North Korea's state-run media, Feltman
discussed U.N. assistance and operations in North Korea along with
"other matters of mutual concern" during a meeting with the vice foreign
minister on Wednesday. Six U.N. agencies, with about 50 international
staff, are represented in the North.
The visit by Feltman, an American citizen and former
State Department official, comes amid high tensions on the peninsula
fanned by tough talk and posturing by Pyongyang and Washington. The
North recently launched its most advanced missile to date and the U.S.
and South Korea are now holding joint exercises with some of the world's
most powerful fighter aircraft.
North Korea's official news agency on Wednesday quoted an
unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman strongly criticizing senior U.S.
administration officials' "bellicose remarks" and the ongoing military
exercises.
"The remaining question now is: when will the war break out," it said.
Though the North's state media are prone to publishing
alarmist rhetoric, North Korean authorities have regularly criticized
the U.N. for its sanctions resolutions, insisting Pyongyang has the
sovereign right to test missiles, nuclear devices and launch satellites.
In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September,
Foreign Minister Ri defended his country's missile and nuclear programs
as a "righteous self-defensive measure" in the face of U.S. hostility
and nuclear threats.
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