The U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues will visit Seoul later this week for meetings with South Korean officials, the State Department announced Monday.

Amb. Robert King will be in Seoul Nov. 11-18 "as part of regular consultations with senior Republic of Korea officials on a range of human rights and humanitarian issues," the department said in a release without elaborating.

The visit comes as the international community is gearing up to increase pressure on Pyongyang over its human rights problems with a new U.N. General Assembly resolution calling for referring the communist nation to the International Criminal Court. (Yonhap)