North Korean diplomat heads to UN amid Trump-Kim diplomacy signals
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong's New York visit may create openings for informal contact as Trump signals renewed interest in summit diplomacy.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump during their meeting at Panmunjom on June 30, 2019, in this photo released the North’s official Rodong Sinmun the following day.
YONHAP
WASHINGTON — North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong is planning to attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week, it emerged Thursday, as U.S. President Donald Trump signals he may be open to resuming summit diplomacy with the North Korean leader.
UN sources said Kim is slated to attend the high-level segment of the 81st UN General Assembly, which opens Sept. 22, with the vice minister's address expected on Sept. 28, the final day of the high-level debate.
North Korea sent a high-level delegation to the General Assembly last year for the first time in seven years. Vice Foreign Minister Kim said in the general debate speech in 2025, “We will never give up our nuclear weapons, and we will not reverse this position under any circumstances,” ruling out denuclearization.
During this year's visit to New York, Kim is expected to meet with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and hold talks with officials from countries friendly to North Korea, including Cuba and Venezuela.
A meeting with Singapore's delegation is also reportedly in the works. Singapore hosted the first summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in 2018. Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan visited North Korea in May and met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and other officials, then traveled to Seoul, where he said North Korea was not yet ready to talk with South Korea or the United States.
South Korea's government used that visit to relay its North Korea policy through Balakrishnan and send a message seeking dialogue, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said at the time.
North Korea did not send high-level officials to the UN for six years after the failed 2019 Hanoi summit with Trump, with its UN ambassador, Kim Song, delivering the country's General Assembly speeches instead.
Diplomatic observers largely see the odds of immediate U.S.-North Korea contact as low, though some suggest Kim Son-gyong's UN appearance could open the door to informal, behind-the-scenes contact between the two countries.
Separately, former United States Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who led working-level negotiations for the first Trump administration's summits with North Korea, said a Trump visit to Pyongyang is a plausible scenario and argued that South Korea needs to play a central role if dialogue resumes.
“President Trump is publicly signaling to Chairman Kim that he wants to engage, and Chairman Kim is not closing the door,” he said in a keynote address at the West Coast Exchange conference hosted by Korea Risk Group in Incheon on Thursday.
“Whatever might happen, whatever might be agreed, first and foremost involves the security and welfare of a free, democratic South Korean people,” he said.
BY KANG TAE-HWA [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
