National security chief to visit U.S. next week

North Korea will be high on the agenda when South Korea's national security adviser meets with U.S. officials in Washington next week, a government source said Wednesday.

Kim Kwan-jin will head for Washington D.C. on Sunday and hold talks with his U.S. counterpart, Susan Rice, and other high-ranking officials and experts, the source said. He will return to South Korea on Sept. 17.

It will be Kim's first overseas trip since he was appointed as the chief national security adviser in June.

Earlier, the presidential office said Kim's visit will be part of a routine discussion between Seoul's National Security Office and the White House National Security Council (NSC) to reinforce cooperation between the two countries.

The source said Kim will have broader discussions with the U.S. on North Korean sanctions and other pending issues concerning the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul had earlier proposed high-level inter-Korean talks and hinted at resuming the long-suspended Mt. Kumgang tour and lifting its 2010 sanctions against North Korea.

South Korea ceased the tour to Mt. Kumgang in 2008 when one of its tourists was shot dead in the North Korean area and imposed what are called "May 24 sanctions" after the North torpedoed the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in 2010.

The U.S. plan to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery on the Korean Peninsula, an integral part of the U.S. Military Defense (MD) system, will be also on the agenda, said the source. Seoul's defense ministry, however, said it has not been notified from Washington of the issue.

Kim will discuss a recent Seoul-Washington agreement to establish a combined division of their troops next year that will carry out wartime operations, the source said. (Yonhap)