Lynn Pascoe, special envoy of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, met with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and delivered a verbal message from the UN chief, as well as a leather-bound copy of the UN Charter, a UN spokesman said Thursday.
"The gift -- this is a standard UN and indeed diplomatic protocol," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said here at UN Headquarters in New York. "Gifts are given on such visits."
"This was a leather-bound copy of the United Nations Charter in all six official languages," he said, referring to Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish -- the six official languages in the world body.
Pascoe, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, is the first high-level UN official to visit the DPRK since 2004.
When asked about the verbal message from Ban, Nesirky said he could not comment on the exchange.
Pascoe and the other three members of the delegation are in Pyongyang until Friday and would then leave for Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo, Nesirky said.
Upon his arrival at Pyongyang's international airport Tuesday, Pascoe told Xinhua that he and DPRK officials would mainly discuss ways to enhance cooperation between the United Nations and the DPRK.