SEOUL/BEIJING (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top nuclear envoy will visit China this week to discuss diplomatic efforts to revive the stalled six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, the foreign ministry said Sunday.
Lim Sung-nam plans to meet his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei and other officials in Beijing during his two-day visit starting Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.
Lim and Chinese officials will assess the outcome of talks last week between North Korea and the United States and discuss their future moves, the statement said.
Senior diplomats from North Korea and the U.S. concluded two days of talks in Geneva last week to gauge the North's seriousness toward denuclearization before the six-party talks can resume.
Both sides reported some progress after the Geneva talks, but no agreement was made to restart the six-nation discussions involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
Separately, North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan arrived in Beijing on Sunday and is expected to meet Wu, a diplomatic source in Beijing said.
Kim held the Geneva talks with Washington's outgoing chief envoy for Pyongyang, Stephen Bosworth, and then traveled to Moscow. Kim is expected to return home as early as Tuesday, according to the source.
The multilateral forum has been at a standstill since April 2009 when the North left the negotiating table and then conducted its second nuclear test a month later.
South Korea and the U.S. have laid out a series of "pre-steps" before the resumption of the six-party talks. Among other preconditions, Seoul and Washington have insisted that Pyongyang suspend its uranium enrichment program and allow international inspectors to verify the suspension ahead of the aid-for-disarmament talks.
North Korea, in contrast, has repeatedly called for an early resumption of the six-party talks without any preconditions.