Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported in a Washington dateline story Saturday that Ri Gun, a senior North Korean foreign affairs official in charge of American affairs, is scheduled to visit New York beginning Saturday for 11 days.

The Japanese daily quoted a diplomatic source as saying that, in New York, Ri is to attend an American Foreign Affairs Policy Committee meeting that will see the participation of government officials and scholars from South Korea, Japan, and the U.S.

Attention is being drawn to the possibility of U.S.-North Korean contact to fine-tune details for the next round of six-way nuclear talks, since Donald Kaiser, senior deputy assistant secretary of state for Pacific and Asian affairs, is likely to attend the meeting.