According to the Nova agency, the United Nations (UN) Undersecretary General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, will visit Pyongyang starting today to discuss "matters of mutual interest and concern". This was announced by a UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, yesterday evening. Feltman will meet with the North Korean foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, and other officials from that country, with the intention of raising the issue of Pyongyang's ballistics and nuclear programs. During the visit, which will last for four days, the UN official will also meet the UN diplomatic delegation in the country. Feltman's visit, the spokesman pointed out, "comes in response to an invitation to political dialogue with the UN which has long been extended by the Pyongyang authorities", and will provide an opportunity for "wide-ranging discussions".
Feltman will be the first UN senior official to visit North Korea since his predecessor, Lynn Pascoe, who went there in February 2010. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the North Korean nuclear program "one of the more pressing issues ”that the international community has to face. Feltman said he met with the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, Ja Song Nam, following the test of an ICBM carried out by Pyongyang last Wednesday. The Security Council imposed harsh sanctions on North Korea on 11 September, in response to the latest nuclear test in Pyongyang, targeting oil and gas supplies destined for that country for the first time.
On Wednesday, North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile, abruptly interrupting a break of about 10 weeks from the armed provocations of that regime. According to the first information released by the Pentagon and the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the missile was launched by Sain Ni, in North Korea, and it sank 53 minutes later in the Sea of Japan about 250 kilometers from the coast of Japan. According to the Defense of South Korea, the missile launched by Pyongyang is an intercontinental ballistic missile (Icbm) Hwasong 14, similar to the one launched in the Sea of Japan last July. The missile has reached a maximum altitude of over 4 thousand kilometers and traveled a distance of about one thousand kilometers. The Japanese Defense Minister, Itsunori Onodera, reported that the missile split into several parts during the terminal phase of its flight, and it is therefore not to be excluded that Pyongyang has tested a carrier with multiple independent warheads (Mirv).
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un welcomed the launch test success as a key strategic victory for the country: North Korea, he said, "has completed the development phase of its nuclear program". The North Korean state television broadcaster announced that the regime has tested the prototype of a new intercontinental ballistic missile, called "Hwasong 15", capable of hitting the entire national territory of the United States. According to the regime organs, Pyongyang intends to establish itself as a "responsible" nuclear power from now on. "The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, has announced that the country has achieved its great historic ambition to complete the nuclear power of the state," reads the statement released by the regime's media. Just a few days ago, South Korean intelligence had argued that Pyongyang was struggling to make progress on the miniaturization of nuclear warheads and atmospheric reentry technologies of warheads. However, this morning's test seems to at least partially disprove these assessments, and Seoul admitted that it could not rule out the full operation of the North Korean nuclear test within a year.
In the aftermath of the North Korean ballistic test, the US government urged Beijing to "cut off oil supplies to North Korea": this measure, said US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, "would be a crucial step in the context efforts aimed at stopping this pariah of the international community ”. Geng Shuan, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said yesterday that "China expresses grave concern and opposition" to Pyongyang's decision to test an ICBM ". The spokesman resorted to harsher tones than those used by Beijing so far; China, however, did not comment on a possible oil embargo on North Korea, which would push the regime, already subjected to a harsh international sanctioning regime, into an even more difficult position.