The head of the ruling Saenuri Party called on North Korea Thursday to allow U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to the communist country as the North abruptly canceled the planned visit the previous day.
Ban was to cross over to North Korea from the South on Thursday to visit an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong as part of peace-promoting efforts.
One day ahead of the planned visit, however, the North called off the visit without explanation. On Wednesday, Pyongyang also claimed to have completed the development of the technology to make nuclear bombs small enough to be mounted on missiles, heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
“I urge a change of mind and a resolute decision from the North Korean regime in order for Secretary-General Ban’s visit to North Korea to be carried out,” Kim Moo-sung, the chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a meeting of senior party members.
“The North Korean regime’s irrational and impolite behaviors have not been an affair of once or twice, but the fizzling out of Ban’s Kaesong Industrial Complex visit is a mistake to the U.N., which is working to secure world peace,” he noted.
Also touching on North Korea’s recent military provocations, including the claimed launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile and live-fire drills at the maritime border, Kim called on the communist country to end military threats and provocations and come to the negotiating table with the international society. (Yonhap)
