S. Korean nuke envoy to visit Washington for talks over Korean Peninsula issues

   SEOUL, Jan. 14 -- South Korea's top nuclear envoy will make a four-day visit to Washington this week for talks with his U.S. counterpart over the Korean Peninsula issues, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
   Lee Do-hoon, South Korea's special representative for the Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will travel to Washington on Wednesday to meet with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun who also serves as the chief U.S. envoy in denuclearization talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
   During the meeting, the two envoys planned to share the assessment of recent situations on the peninsula and discuss ways to push forward peninsula's complete denuclearization and peace settlement, the ministry noted.
   The South Korean diplomat also planned to have meetings with other U.S. administration officials.
   The DPRK-U.S. dialogue has been in a deadlock since the second summit between top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump ended without any agreement in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi in February last year.
   Pyongyang and Washington held the working-level denuclearization negotiations in Stockholm in October last year, but it ended without progress.
   In response to Trump's birthday congratulatory message to Kim, the DPRK issued a statement Saturday that dialogue with the United States can resume only when Washington fully accepts Pyongyang's demands. Xinhau