The US point men for North Korea policy will head to the region this week for talks with top officials in South Korea, China and Japan, the State Department said Sunday.
Special Representative for North Korea Policy Ambassador Stephen Bosworth and Sung Kim, the ambassador to suspended six-party talks on the North's nuclear program, plan to be in Seoul on Tuesday and Beijing on Wednesday.
Bosworth will continue on to Tokyo on January 6, and "in all three cities, he will meet with senior government officials to discuss next steps on the Korean Peninsula," the State Department said in a statement.
Tensions have run high since the North shelled a South Korean border island in November, killing two soldiers and two civilians in one of the most serious border incidents since the 1950-1953 war.
Six-party talks bringing together the United States, China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia ground to a halt in April 2009 when Pyongyang walked out and ordered UN nuclear inspectors to leave the country.
It staged a second nuclear test a month later.
However, North Korea began the new year with calls for improved relations with the South, and did not follow through on threats to respond to a live-fire drill on the same border island in December.
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