SEOUL: North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong has arrived in New York to attend the ongoing United Nations General Assembly, in what would be the North's first high-level attendance at the UN gathering in seven years.
A delegation led by Kim has departed Pyongyang for the 80th UN General Assembly, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) earlier said.
Kim arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport at 11:45 p.m. Thursday (local time) on an Air China flight.
Reporters waiting at the airport asked Kim whether he plans to hold bilateral talks with the US side, but he left the airport in a vehicle from North Korea's mission to the US without responding, Yonhap news agency reported.
It marks the first time that North Korea has sent a high-level delegation to the UN General Assembly since 2019, when leader Kim Jong-un's last summit with US President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, ended without a deal.
From 2014 to 2018, North Korea's foreign minister -- first Ri Su-yong and later Ri Yong-ho -- attended the annual session.
Since then, Kim Song-gyong, North Korea's permanent representative to the UN, has represented Pyongyang at the General Assembly.