North Korea is set to dispatch a deputy foreign minister to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly for the first time since 2018.
On September 20, NK News—a media outlet specializing in North Korean affairs—reported that Pyongyang will send a high-level delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York beginning on Tuesday. Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Sun-kyung is scheduled to deliver a speech during the general debate on September 29.
This marks the first time in seven years that North Korea will send a high-ranking official from its homeland to address the UN General Assembly. Prior to the collapse of the Hanoi summit in 2019, North Korea had consistently sent officials at the deputy minister level to speak at the assembly.
The decision to elevate the speaker for this year’s UN General Assembly is likely connected to Kim Jong Un’s recent demonstration of close ties with China and Russia. This was evident during his attendance at the 80th anniversary of China’s Victory Day on September 3, an event commemorating China’s resistance against Japan and the global anti-fascist war.
Christopher Green, an assistant professor at Leiden University and a consultant for the International Crisis Group, told NK News that sending a high-level delegation signals that North Korea has a message to convey, but it doesn’t reveal what that message might be.
Professor Lim Eum-chul from Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies analyzed that North Korea will likely use the UN platform to promote a multilateral diplomatic order, thereby challenging U.S.-centric unilateral diplomacy. He anticipates that Pyongyang will explicitly address issues it has previously raised concerning the U.S., such as the South Korea-U.S. military exercises and its claim to nuclear power status.