N. Korea's new foreign minister heads to Laos for overseas debut

PYONGYANG. KAZINFORM - North Korea's new foreign minister on Saturday left for Laos to make his overseas debut at a major security forum, at a time of high tensions over Pyongyang's series of weapons tests, Kyodo reports.
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This is the first trip abroad by Ri Yong Ho since he became foreign minister in May. His departure from Pyongyang's airport was confirmed by Kyodo News.

Ri was formerly a top nuclear negotiator and had experience in negotiating with the United States and other countries before assuming the new post.

The seasoned diplomat's remarks at the ASEAN Regional Forum on Tuesday, a gathering of his counterparts from nearly 30 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, as well as his decision as to whether he will hold one-to-one talks on the sidelines, are being closely monitored by North Korea watchers.

This is particularly so this year in Vientiane as North Korea continues to perform ballistic missile tests in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, even after it came under tougher additional sanctions in March.

Officials who were at the airport to see Ri off included China's ambassador to North Korea, Li Jinjun. Ri later arrived in Beijing on his way to Vientiane.

The ambassador's appearance indicates the possibility of Ri's upcoming interaction with officials from China, North Korea's sole major ally and most important economic partner, during his trip.

The forum, Asia's biggest annual security meeting, is one of the very few multilateral meetings in which North Korea's foreign minister participates.

The five countries -- China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States -- are all members of the long-stalled six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program.

Ri, who was North Korea's chief representative to the talks, is scheduled to arrive in the Laotian capital on Sunday afternoon, according to officials with knowledge of the situation.

North Korean officials have said the negotiations, which have been stalled since late 2008, are already "dead."

North Korea's most recent test-firing of banned ballistic missiles took place on Tuesday. The launch is widely seen as an angry response to the decision earlier this month by South Korea and the United States to deploy a new defense system.

The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea by the end of 2017 is aimed at countering North Korean missile threats.

North Korea, which has threatened to take "physical counter-action" in response to the plan, is also furious about the U.S. administration's recent sanctions on leader Kim Jong Un for what it called his "notorious abuses" of human rights.

North Korea says the sanctions have impaired the dignity of its supreme leadership and it has already notified the United States that it will start dealing with all issues pertaining to the two countries from now on under its wartime law.

Japanese, South Korean and U.S. officials have been on alert for a possible fifth nuclear test by North Korea. They said activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Korea's northeast has been increasing since around July 10.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January. Consequently, the United Nations imposed the new sanctions, but Kim made it clear at a once-in-a-generation party congress in May that he will not abandon his signature policy of pursuing nuclear armament and economic development simultaneously.

Source: Kyodo

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