The World Economic Forum (WEF) has withdrawn an invitation for North Korea to send its first ever delegation to the annual meeting of world leaders in Davos. The decision was taken after the totalitarian state reported last week that it had carried out a hydrogen bomb test. Ri Su-yong, Foreign Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), was due to lead a delegation after accepting the WEF invitation last autumn. But WEF executive Philipp Rösler told journalists at the pre-Davos press conference on Wednesday that accepting the North Koreans would be in violation of the WEF spirit of “improving the state of the world”. Last autumn’s invitation had been sent following some “encouraging signals” that North Korea was willing to engage in constructive dialogue, Rösler added. “[But] after the nuclear test we decided that there would be no opportunity for international global dialogue,” he said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be another absentee from ...
