A number of news outlets are reporting that the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, is to visit the hermit state of North Korea in the coming week. While no date for the prospective visit has been given, Ban is expected to meet Kim Jung-un, the North Korean supreme leader.
This visit is indeed significant and its potential importance should not be played down — and it will hopefully have an immediate positive influence on relations between the paranoid leadership in Pyongyang and its neighbours to the south of the Demilitarised Zone.
That Ban himself is a South Korean and will be meeting Kim speaks volumes for the significance, importance and context.
Kim and his late father, Kim Jung-il, have proven to be masters of political brinkmanship, using their nuclear programme to pressure regional and western powers for Pyongyang’s own needs. Rightfully, there are heavy international sanctions in place against the regime. If Ban’s visit can at least stop the cycle of carrot-and-stick tensions, it will be a good day’s work. But Pyongyang has to prove itself to be trustworthy. So far, it hasn’t.
