U.S. envoy for N.K. to visit S. Korea next week
WASHINGTON. KAZINORM U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun will travel to South Korea and Japan next week for talks on North Korea's denuclearization, the State Department said Friday.
Biegun will visit Seoul next Thursday and Friday following a two-day stay in Tokyo, the department said in a statement, Yonhap reports.
He will meet with South Korean and Japanese officials "to discuss efforts to advance the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea," it said.
Biegun's trip comes amid an impasse between Washington and Pyongyang over how to dismantle the regime's nuclear weapons program.
North Korea has demanded the removal of U.S.-led sanctions on its regime in exchange for steps toward denuclearization.
A second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam in February ended without a deal due to disagreements over the scope of the North's denuclearization and sanctions relief from the U.S.
Biegun and his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, spoke by phone Thursday to share their assessments of the situation following the Hanoi summit, Seoul's foreign ministry said.