UN chief to reportedly visit North Korea this week

PanARMENIAN.Net - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Pyongyang this week for a possible meeting with leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean news report said, according to the Associated Press.

The possible trip comes six months after Pyongyang at the last minute canceled an invitation for Ban to visit an inter-Korean factory park in the North Korean city of Kaesong. Ban has said North Korea gave no reason for the cancellation. He had not planned to visit Pyongyang at that time.

Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified source in the UN when it reported Sunday about Ban's Pyongyang trip. It gave no details on the purpose of the trip or the day it would take place.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric and Seoul's Unification Ministry said they had no comment.

If the trip does take place, Ban would be the first UN head to visit North Korea since Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1993.

Yonhap, quoting another unidentified UN source, said Ban is expected to meet Kim because it's unlikely for the secretary general to visit a UN member state without meeting the country's leader.

That source was quoted as saying Ban's trip could serve as a breakthrough in the standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program and strained ties between the two Koreas.