Washington’s leading North Korea envoy to go to Seoul this week

SEOUL, Dec. 7 (UPI) — U.S. Deputy Secretary of Point out Stephen Biegun, Washington’s stage man on nuclear negotiations with North Korea, will check out Seoul on Tuesday for a four-day journey, the Point out Department announced.

Biegun will satisfy with South Korean officials to “examine the U.S.-ROK Alliance and our shared dedication to regional safety, security and prosperity in the course of the Indo-Pacific, and continued shut coordination on North Korea,” the State Office said in a statement on Sunday. The Republic of Korea is the formal title of South Korea.

Biegun’s agenda features a assembly with his counterpart on North Korean affairs, main nuclear negotiator Lee Do-hoon, as nicely as a evening meal on Friday with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, South Korea’s international ministry stated in a assertion Monday.

The nuclear envoy is also slated to satisfy with Unification Minister Lee In-young, according to ministry spokesperson Yoh Sang-critical, although a day has not however been declared.

The check out arrives through a time period of uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula ahead of Washington’s transition up coming month to the administration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Observers are preserving an eye out for any intense moves from North Korea, together with a prospective exam-start of the enormous intercontinental ballistic missile it unveiled at a military parade in Oct.

At his conferences this week, Biegun can be anticipated to “explore continuity of U.S.-North Korea plan and the likelihood of North Korean provocation during the vulnerable changeover period of time,” wrote retired Military Unique Forces Col. David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Protection of Democracies thinktank, in a notice.

Other matters could include things like the prospective humanitarian and financial crises dealing with North Korea as nicely as the still-unresolved armed service price-sharing arrangement between Washington and Seoul, Maxwell wrote.

Nuclear negotiations concerning Pyongyang and Washington have been stalled given that a February 2019 summit in between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un finished devoid of an arrangement.

South Korea and the United States have also observed their military services connection strained around calls for by the Trump administration for Seoul to shell out extra to address the expenditures of the roughly 28,500 troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula.

Biegun was appointed exclusive North Korea envoy in 2018 and was elevated to deputy secretary of Condition previous calendar year.

Throughout his past stop by to South Korea, he expressed Washington’s solve to resume the deadlocked dialogue with the North, indicating when Kim appoints a counterpart for talks, “they will come across us ready at that pretty moment.”

Biegun is also scheduled to supply an deal with on Thursday at a Seoul feel tank right before returning to the United States on Saturday.