South Korean nuclear envoy heads to US, China

South Korea's top nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kook departed for Washington Monday to meet with his counterpart over restarting stalled negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear weapons program.

Hwang Joon-kook, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, is scheduled to meet with Amb. Sung Kim in Washington on the first leg of his three-nation tour that will also take him to Beijing and London, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency.

"As we are pursuing exploratory talks with North Korea, I plan to focus more on these efforts," Hwang said.

Five dialogue partners with North Korea -- South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S. -- have reportedly reached a consensus on holding "exploratory talks" with Pyongyang, but the communist nation has not shown any interest yet.

The talks are seen as a compromise form of negotiations aimed at meeting both Pyongyang's demand for unconditional resumption of talks and the U.S.' insistence that any formal negotiations should begin only after Pyongyang takes concrete steps demonstrating its denuclearization commitment.

In Washington, Hwang also plans to meet with Daniel Glaser, the Treasury's assistant secretary for terrorist financing, to discuss sanctions imposed on North Korea.

On Wednesday, he will meet with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei in Beijing before flying to London to deliver a speech at the Chatham House think tank on Friday about South Korea's diplomacy aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.

The six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean standoff have been stalled since late 2008. North Korea demands the unconditional resumption of negotiations, while the U.S. says that Pyongyang must first take concrete steps demonstrating its denuclearization commitments.

As the six-party talks have been idled, the North has bolstered its nuclear capabilities and stockpile and conducted its second and third nuclear tests, in 2009 and 2013. Some experts now warn that the communist nation's nuclear arsenal could expand to 100 bombs by 2020.