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'Low profile' diplomacy: North Korea's hidden avenues to the world

A summit with the U.S. could expand North Korea's little-known involvement with international organizations.

North Korean U.N. Ambassador So Se Pyong speaks to reporters at a news conference in 2014 at his country’s mission in Geneva.
North Korean U.N. Ambassador So Se Pyong speaks to reporters at a news conference in 2014 at his country’s mission in Geneva. (AN/J. Heilprin)

WASHINGTON (AN) — A peace treaty and nuclear disarmament on the Korean Peninsula would expand one of North Korea's most important conduits to the world besides China: its sizable but little-known involvement with international organizations.

That would be a key outcome if the summit in Singapore between the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and U.S. President Donald Trump leads towards denuclearization, peace and a withdrawal of the international sanctions weighing on North Korea's moribund economy.

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Security Council (UNSC)UNESCOUNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1972UNICEFUnited NationsUniversal Postal Union (UPU)Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer 1988Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1967Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1964Vienna Convention on the Representation of States in their Relations with International Organizations of a Universal Character 1975WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control 2005World Bank GroupWorld Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)World Food Program (WFP)World Health Organization (WHO)World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)World Meteorological Organization (WMO)World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)World Trade Organization (WTO)U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity 1993U.N. 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