United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he is mulling a visit to North Korea as part of efforts to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

“As the U.N. secretary-general, I am ready to play every role required to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula. I consider visiting North Korea as soon as conditions are met,” Ban said in a speech during the National Assembly plenary session.

“I hope North Korea’s new leadership will be a responsible member of the international community by responding to calls for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and taking the initiative of improving the lives of the people,” Ban said, vowing efforts for the reunification of the two Koreas.

Stressing the serious circumstances North Korea is facing, the U.N. chief, who served as South Korea’s foreign minister before being elected as the eighth secretary general of the United Nations in 2006, urged his home country’s parliament to play a leading role in helping their neighbors.

The U.N. chief began a four-day trip to his home country Sunday, during which he was awarded the biennial Seoul Peace prize, becoming the first South Korean to receive the award that was established in 1990 to commemorate the success of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It was Ban’s first parliamentary address since taking office as the U.N. chief.

Pointing to ongoing conflicts among Northeast Asian countries, he urged the regional players to seek peaceful solutions by active cooperation and exchanges.

“Northeast Asia is emerging as one of the main axes of the world, but it is still haunted by sources of conflict from the past,” Ban said, alluding to high tensions in recent months between South Korea, China and Japan over historical and territorial issues.

While urging the players to “look ahead to a future based upon the correct perception of history,” the U.N. chief urged the countries to promote not only bilateral exchanges but also multilateral economic integration and political cooperation.

“Multilateralism is necessary in this course (of cooperation), and South Korea plays a bridge role,” he said, citing Europe, Africa and South American countries as prime examples of regional cooperation.

The U.N. chief also said South Korea “would act as a catalyst”

in the international arena in pushing for the U.N.’s three major goals of sustainable development, the prevention and management of conflicts, and the establishment of human rights and democracy, as the country is “the unprecedented model in the world in achieving the three tasks.” (Yonhap News)