WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- Kurt M. Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, will visit South Korea, China and Japan next week for discussions on various issues, including North Korea, which is in a power transition, the department announced Thursday.

Campbell plans to tour the region from Tuesday through Saturday to meet senior officials to “discuss a range of important bilateral, regional and global issues, including latest developments related to North Korea and Burma,” it said in a press release.

It would mark his first trip there since the death of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il.

The U.S. is apparently weighing next steps on the North with the end of its formal mourning period.

Campbell is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday for an “important opportunity to continue to build a cooperative partnership with China on shared global challenges,” according to the department.

He will then head to Seoul on Wednesday for a three-day stay aimed to “continue our close consultation and coordination on the broad range of issues of importance to our alliance,” it added, followed by a trip to Tokyo.

In a press briefing, meanwhile, the department reiterated that it has not made a decision on whether to provide Pyongyang with food aid.

“We are continuing to talk about the humanitarian situation in the DPRK (North Korea) and what we’ve said to the North Koreans and what the South Koreans have also said to the North Koreans regarding whether or not we would go forward with nutritional assistance,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

On talks with the North, she emphasized that “the ball is in their court.”