ROK nuke envoy to visit Washington for talks over Korean Peninsula issues

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea's top nuclear envoy will make a four-day visit to Washington this week for talks with his US counterpart over the Korean Peninsula issues, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Lee Do-hoon, ROK's special representative for the Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will travel to Washington on Wednesday to meet with US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun who also serves as the chief US envoy in denuclearization talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

During the meeting, the two envoys planned to share the assessment of recent situations on the peninsula and discuss ways to push forward peninsula's complete denuclearization and peace settlement, the ministry noted.

The ROK diplomat also planned to have meetings with other US administration officials.

The DPRK-US dialogue has been in a deadlock since the second summit between top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump ended without any agreement in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi in February last year.

Pyongyang and Washington held the working-level denuclearization negotiations in Stockholm in October last year, but it ended without progress.

In response to Trump's birthday congratulatory message to Kim, the DPRK issued a statement Saturday that dialogue with the United States can resume only when Washington fully accepts Pyongyang's demands.