United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will not visit North Korea next week, a UN spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday, November 18, after China's Xinhua news agency reported that he will visit the North on Monday and stay for about four days, Reuters reports.

The statement released by the spokesman's office said Ban will be in New York and then travel to Malta for the Commonwealth Summit, which starts on November 27. From there, he will travel to Paris for the UN summit on climate change, which begins on November 30.

"The Secretary-General will not be travelling to the DPRK next week," the spokesman said, using the short-form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The Secretary-General has repeatedly said that he is willing to play any constructive role, including traveling to the DPRK, in an effort to work for peace, stability and dialogue on the Korean Peninsula."

The North is under multiple UN Security Council resolutions for its missile and nuclear tests, as well as separate U.S. and EU sanctions.