Ban`s envoy due in Pyongyang on N.K. nuke

A special envoy of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will visit North Korea next month, Ban`s office said in a statement, amid conflicting signals on international engagement from the impoverished, nuclear armed communist state, according to Yonhap News.

The four-day visit from Feb. 9 by Under-Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe comes as Pyongyang fired artillery rounds into the western sea border with South Korea in the past days and resisted international pressure to return to the six-party talks for its denuclearization.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said last week that he may be able to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this year to discuss the nuclear issue and others, spawning speculation that talks are under way for a breakthrough in inter-Korean ties due to the economic plight the North has been suffering from international sanctions.

"Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe will visit the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea from 9 to 12 February 2010 as a Special Envoy of the Secretary-General," the statement said. "Pascoe will discuss with DPRK officials all issues of mutual interest and concern in a comprehensive manner. He will also meet with the U.N. country team, and members of the diplomatic corps, and will visit several U.N. project sites."

Pascoe will also visit South Korea, China and Japan, the statement said.

The envoy`s planned visit revives bilateral contact between the global body and Pyongyang, which has been severed since 2005 when Maurice Strong, then Secretary General Kofi Annan`s special envoy for North Korea, resigned over his alleged role in a lobbying scandal involving the oil-for-food program in Iraq. Strong last visited Pyongyang in 2004.