MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the South Korean Yonhap news agency, citing sources, this would be Ban’s first visit to North Korea as the UN chief.
Ban’s visit creates hopes that the relations between North and South Korea would see progress and that the Pyongyang nuclear issue would be solved, the media outlet reported.
In 2003, Pyongyang joined negotiations on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula with the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, after it withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it ratified in 1985.
North Korea then withdrew from the talks, declared itself a nuclear power in 2005, and conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. Pyongyang has never made public how many nuclear weapons it possesses.
Pyongyang’s nuclear activities have received international condemnation.
