STEPHEN BIEGUN TO VISIT S.KOREA

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U.S. North Korean envoy Stephen Biegun is to visit Seoul this Sunday, earlier than projected. It remains to be seen whether a contact with North Korea will be made during his stay.

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U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun is travelling to South Korea again, after four months. The deputy secretary of state nominee will likely visit Seoul on Sunday. That's earlier than the initially projected date of the latter part of next week. As of now, Biegun reportedly reserved his flight to Korea only, leaving the return ticket open. The visit is gaining attention as it comes at a time when tension between Pyongyang and Washington is mounting. He is likely to meet with Cheong Wa Dae and Foreign Ministry officials to exchange information on North Korea's recent movements and discuss ways to resume denuclearization talks. He is also very likely to attempt to meet with North Korean officials at Panmunjeom. Biegun proposed a meeting with Pyongyang during his August visit to Seoul, but returned to the United States after the regime refused to respond. During October's working-level talks in Stokcholm, he sat down with Roving Ambassador Kim Myong-gil, but picked North Korea's 1st Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui as his negotiation counterpart at a recent confirmation hearing. But it's still unclear whether Pyongyang would accept Biegun's proposal for a meeting. Claiming that denuclearization had been taken off the negotiation table, the communist state demanded that Washington remove hostile policies against the regime before resuming talks. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced he'll make a final decision by the end of the year. It remains to be seen if the American nuke envoy can find a new breakthrough for denuclearization talks by sitting down with North Koreans before the year-end deadline.