Senior UN official leaves North Korea after rare visit

United Nations Under-Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman (Photo By DFID – UK Department for International Development – Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, United Nations, Jeffrey Feltman, CC BY 2.0)

PYONGYANG, Korea, Democratic People’s Republic Of — A senior U.N. official has left Pyongyang after four days of talks with the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

U.N. Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman says “I have to brief the secretary general first” when asked for details of his trip.

Feltman met North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Thursday and also had two sessions of talks with Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk.

Feltman, the highest-ranking American in the U.

N. secretariat, is the first person in that post to visit North Korea since February 2010.

North Korea regularly accuses the U.N. of bias, criticizing the U.N. sanctions resolutions that condemn Pyongyang’s missile launches and nuclear tests. Pyongyang says those resolutions are illegal and it has the right to pursue missile and nuclear programs.