A senior UN official embarked on a four-day trip to North Korea on Tuesday.
 
UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman along with a party of four to five officials boarded a North Korean Air Koryo flight in Beijing at around 1 p.m. and headed to Pyongyang.
 
At the airport, he just said "thank you" to reporters who asked about his itinerary in North Korea.
 
The visit comes after the Trump administration vowed additional sanctions over Pyongyang's intercontinental ballistic missile launch carried out last week.
 
The UN official has been in contact with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho. It's believed that Feltman may meet with officials of the North's Foreign Ministry and ruling Workers' Party during his visit.
 
He could possibly play a mediating role to bring North Korea to the negotiation table as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had expressed willingness to serve as a mediator in resolving the North's nuclear and missile issue.
 
Feltman's trip marks the first high-ranking visit to the North by a UN official since his predecessor Lynn Pascoe traveled there in February 2010 and former UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos visited the North in October 2011.