South Korea envoy on North Korean nukes likely to visit S. Korea next week

South Korea and the United States are in the final stages of arranging US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun's visit to Seoul next week to discuss North Korean nuclear issues, sources said Wednesday.

The sources said the foreign affairs bodies of the two countries are discussing final details of the trip set for May 8-10.

In Seoul, the US special representative will hold a "working group" meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, to discuss latest security developments on the Korean Peninsula as well as ways to resume denuclearization negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang following the unsuccessful Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un in February.

North Korea`s leader Kim Jong-un. Yonhap

If held as planned, this would mark the first "working group"

discussion between Seoul and Washington in two months. It would also be Biegun's first Seoul trip since the Hanoi summit. 

When the two sides meet next week, they are also expected to touch on Seoul's delayed plan to provide humanitarian assistance to the North. 

The government resolved in 2017 to provide US$8 million worth of humanitarian aid to the North via international organizations, but its implementation was put on hold amid tightening US sanctions on North Korea. (Yonhap)