UN envoy en route to North Korea for rare visit, as tension soars
Beijing — A senior United Nations envoy arrived at Beijing’s airport on Tuesday on his way to North Korea for a rare visit aimed at defusing soaring tension over Pyongyang’s intercontinental ballistic missile launch. The unusual trip by Jeffrey Feltman, which runs until Friday, comes less than a week after North Korea said it had test-fired a new ballistic missile capable of reaching the US. AFP journalists saw Feltman arrive in a UN-flagged car at the Chinese capital’s international airport in the morning. North Korea’s Air Koryo airline has a 4.55am GMT flight to Pyongyang on Tuesday. His trip comes a day after the US and South Korea launched their biggest joint air exercise yet — manoeuvres slammed by Pyongyang as an "all-out provocation". The five-day Vigilant Ace drill involved 230 aircraft, including F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighters, and tens of thousands of troops, Seoul’s air force said. Feltman arrived in China on Monday as Beijing is one of the few transit points to North ...
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