WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. State Department said here on Monday that the country's special envoy on issues related to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will travel to Pyongyang to prepare for the second summit of the two nations' top leaders.
According to a statement issued by the State Department, Stephen Biegun, U.S. special representative for the DPRK-related issues, will travel to Pyongyang later on Feb. 6 for meetings with his DPRK counterpart, Kim Hyok Chol, to lay the ground work for U.S. President Donald Trump's second meeting with Kim Jong Un, the DPRK's top leader.
The travel also aimed to "advance further progress on the commitments the President and Chairman Kim made in Singapore: complete denuclearization, transforming U.S.-DPRK relations, and building a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula," read the statement.
U.S. State Department said last month that Biegun would travel to Seoul for a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon. He would also have follow-up meetings with his DPRK counterpart to "discuss next steps to advance" the goal of denuclearization.
The U.S.-DPRK relations improved last year, as Kim Jong Un and Trump held their first meeting in Singapore in June, reaching some consensus regarding the decades' hostility between the two nations and the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization.
However, differences between the two sides remain over key issues including the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions on the DPRK and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
