UN official arrives in North Korea amid modest hopes of cooling off tensions

United Nations political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman arrived in North Korea on Tuesday for a rare visit that some analysts and diplomats hope could spark a UN-led effort to defuse rising tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes.

The former senior US State Department official is the highest-level UN official to visit North Korea since 2012. During a four-day visit he is due to meet Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to discuss “issues of mutual interest and concern.”

“This is broadly a policy dialogue with (North Korea). I think we have to wait and see what comes out,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday. “All key member states – were informed and briefed of the visit.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Russia, Japan, the United States, China and North and South Korea in August he was available to help broker talks. So-called six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme stalled in 2008.

A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described expectations for Feltman’s visit as “modest and high at the same time, meaning that they depend on what our hosts are thinking as well.”

“We need to find a way to scale back tensions,” the official said. “I don’t think we will have a major breakthrough being announced at the end of this trip. But the visit could serve as a step to build a framework for engagement.”

Suzanne DiMaggio of the New America Foundation think tank, a participant in recent unofficial talks with North Korea, said Feltman could propose during his visit to Pyongyang that Guterres play a mediation role.