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North's vice foreign minister departs for New York to attend UN General Assembly: Pyongyang

Published: 26 Sep. 2025, 11:28

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong, left, greets other officials before departing for the Non-Aligned Movement summit in January 2024. [KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY]

North Korea said Friday that Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong departed for New York to attend the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

A delegation led by Kim left Pyongyang on Thursday to participate in the UN General Assembly, according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Pyongyang previously sent its foreign ministers to the UN General Assembly — Ri Su-yong in 2014 and 2015, and Ri Yong-ho from 2016 to 2018.

But since the collapse of the U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi in 2019 during the Trump administration, Pyongyang has refrained from dispatching high-level delegations, instead having its UN representative, Kim Song, deliver the annual address.

Kim Son-gyong is scheduled to speak Monday, the final day of the high-level debate at the General Assembly. It will mark the first time in seven years that a North Korean representative delivers an address at the UN.

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.
BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]