Before leaving on her first overseas trip of the year on Thursday, Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi called for a greater effort to achieve national peace, beginning with a speech on Sunday in a township that endured more than six decades of conflict.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will meet South Korea’s president-elect Park Geun-hye when she visits the country later this month on her first overseas trip of the year.

The Kachin Independence Organisation’s call to hold peace talks through Myanmar’s federation of ethnic groups rather than directly with the government is “better than nothing” but insufficient to ensure an end to the conflict, a leading analyst said.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s office is keeping a close eye on Kachin State’s Lajayan area after welcoming the government’s announcement to halt military operations in the area controlled by the Kachin Independence Army.