The chief nuclear negotiators of South Korea and the U.S. are to meet in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, human rights and the overall situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, is scheduled to touch down in Seoul for consultations with Hwang Joon-kook, Seoul’s special representative for Korean Peninsular peace and security affairs.

His two-day trip is part of a weeklong tour that includes stops in Beijing and Tokyo. Hwang also traveled to Washington, D.C., early this month.

The series of meetings come as Pyongyang steps up its diplomatic efforts around the world apparently to cast off its image as an isolated pariah, help relax international sanctions and court economic assistance.

The communist regime dispatched for the first time in 15 years its foreign minister, Ri Su-yong, to New York for the U.N. General Assembly last week, delivering an address on Saturday. His debut on the U.N. stage followed a 10-day Europe tour by Kang Sok-ju, secretary of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, which took him to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy.

While stressing the North’s need for peace as “vital” to expediting economic growth during the 16-minute speech, Ri lashed out at South Korea and the U.S. for staging military drills, calling them a “veiled attempt to succeed in a surprise attack after creating ‘chronic immunity.’” He also reiterated the regime’s old argument that Washington’s 50-odd years of “hostile policy, nuclear threat and stifling strategy” pushed Pyongyang to resort to nuclear weapons.

“The nuclear deterrent of (North Korea) is not intended to threaten or attack others. Neither is it a bargaining chip to be exchanged for something else,” Ri said.

During their consultations, Davies and Hwang are expected to examine the conditions for a possible first round of negotiations in nearly six years on the denuclearization of North Korea.

They will also discuss ways to secure the freedom of three U.S. detainees in North Korea. The sides have had relevant negotiations but no breakthrough has materialized as Pyongyang looks to high-profile figures such as a former president as an acceptable rescuer.

Despite Seoul’s push for what it calls the “Korean formula,” any restart of six-party talks remains far off, with the North and China demanding no preconditions, and the U.S. being absorbed in operations against Sunni militants in the Middle East ahead of a pivotal congressional election in November.

Another major item on the agenda is human rights, which has been emerging since a U.N. panel released a bombshell report detailing “systematic, widespread and gross” violations throughout the communist country.

The foreign ministers of the U.S., South Korea and Japan held a special gathering on the sidelines of the U.N. Assembly last week, where they traded views on North Korea’s human rights issues and listened to testimony from a defector, together with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein.

“Human rights are among our key concerns and about universal values, so they may well be reviewed by Hwang and Davies, who are in charge of not just the six-party talks but also overall North Korea affairs,” a Seoul official said on condition of anonymity.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)