U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit North Korea's capital Pyongyang this week, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, quoting a U.N. source, in what could be a rare diplomatic opening by the isolated state according to Reuters. Ban, who is South Korean, had earlier this year made plans to visit the North, but Pyongyang retracted the approval for the trip at the last minute without explanation. "It is impossible that the U.N Secretary-General will not meet the leader of North Korea, a U.N. member state, as he visits the country," the source told Yonhap, adding that the trip would likely provide significant momentum to resolve issues on the Korean Peninsula. The secretive North, officially named the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is under heavy U.N., EU and U.S. sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests. South Korea's foreign ministry could not immediately confirm the report. Yonhap did not have further details about the trip. The U.N. spokesman's office had no immediate comment.
