North Korea's Kim Son-Gyong to Address UN General Assembly — SkimNews
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- Kim Son-Gyong, North Korea's vice-foreign minister, plans to attend a high-level segment of the UN General Assembly in New York beginning next week, per a Yonhap report dated Sept 18 citing a source at the international body.
- Kim is set to take the podium for a speech during the General Assembly's general debate, scheduled for Sept 22–26 and again on Sept 28.
- The vice-foreign minister plans to meet UN Secretary-General António Guterres and officials from countries friendly to North Korea, specifically Cuba and Venezuela.
- Reuters said it could not immediately verify the Yonhap report, and the UN representative in North Korea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- At the 2025 General Assembly, Kim said North Korea will never give up its nuclear programme, describing any such demand as "tantamount to demanding it to surrender sovereignty and right to existence."
Why it matters: North Korea's return to the General Assembly podium follows Kim's 2025 vow to never abandon the nuclear programme, framing any speech this year within a hardline nuclear posture. The planned bilateral meetings with Cuba and Venezuela point to Pyongyang's continued courtship of a small friendly-states bloc. Reuters flagged that it could not independently verify the Yonhap report, leaving the trip unconfirmed by a second outlet.
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