A North Korean national visited South Korea for a regional conference of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, officials said Monday.

The North Korean, identified only by his family name Jang, arrived in Seoul last Monday in the capacity of a UNESCO official to attend the annual meeting by education coordinators, officials and partners in Asia and the Pacific.

Some 100 participants from 27 countries including South Korea, China, Japan and New Zealand discussed child education at the annual meeting, which was organized by the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education and South Korea’s education ministry. North Korea did not participate in the meeting, though it is a UNESCO member nation.

No inter-Korean issues were discussed, according to officials.

The North Korean official returned to Bangkok, where the headquarters of UNESCO Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau for Education is based, on Sunday, officials said.

It’s rare for a North Korean national to attend an international conference in Seoul, though he did so as an official of the international agency. 

(Yonhap News)