UN envoy warns DPRK 'miscalculation' could trigger conflict

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A senior UN envoy warned Saturday there was a grave risk that a miscalculation could trigger conflict with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as he urged Pyongyang to keep communication channels open after a rare visit to the reclusive state.

Jeffrey Feltman's trip to the DPRK, the first by such a high-ranking UN diplomat since 2010, kicked off less than a week after Pyongyang said it test-fired a new ballistic missile capable of reaching the US.

The UN said Feltman met DPRK's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Kuk and they "agreed that the current situation was the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today."

UN under-secretary-general for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman (L) and DPRK's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho shake hands in Pyongyang, Dec. 7, 2017. /AFP Photo

Noting the "urgent need to prevent miscalculations and open channels to reduce the risks of conflict," Feltman said the international community was committed to finding a peaceful solution.

Feltman, the UN's under-secretary-general for political affairs, also stressed the importance of full implementation of all relevant Security Council resolutions.

The UN Security Council has hit the isolated and impoverished DPRK with a package of sanctions over its increasingly powerful missile and nuclear tests, which have rattled Washington and its regional allies South Korea and Japan.

Earlier, DPRK's state news agency KCNA said "the US policy of hostility toward the DPRK and its nuclear blackmail are to blame for the current tense situation on the Korean Peninsula." But it added the DPRK had agreed with the UN "to regularize communications through visits at various levels."

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Source(s): AFP