NEW YORK — North Korea will send a vice-ministerial official to this month's United Nations General Assembly, as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for a summit with the North before the end of the year.
A vice-ministerial official from North Korea will take the podium during the high-level segment of the 81st UN General Assembly, which opens on the 22nd, according to the UN Secretariat and other sources on the 4th. The official is scheduled to address the assembly on behalf of North Korea at UN headquarters in New York on the 28th, the final day of the high-level segment. Several officials hold vice-ministerial rank at North Korea's Foreign Ministry, but diplomatic circles see a strong possibility that Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong, who oversees international organizations, will attend again after doing so last year.
The speech by a senior North Korean official this year is drawing international attention because it could serve as a message in response to Trump's recent call for a resumption of talks. In her speech at last year's General Assembly, Kim stressed that "we will never lay down our nuclear weapons and will not withdraw this position under any circumstances."
North Korea sent then-Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong to the General Assembly in 2014 and 2015 and then-Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho in 2016 through 2018, but halted senior-level participation after the collapse of the North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed. For six years from 2019 to 2024, Kim Song, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, delivered the address at the General Assembly. The North then resumed sending a senior official for the first time in seven years by dispatching Kim last year, after Trump returned to office.
