A top North Korean defector, Hwang Jang-yop, has obtained permission to travel to the United States this Sunday. He was invited to speak before a forum organized by a Washington-based conservative think tank, the Defense Forum Foundation.

An official at the foundation said that, during his one-week stay in Washington, Hwang will give testimony about the situation in the North. The former North Korean official will also give his opinions about pending issues between Pyongyang and Washington and field questions from forum participants.

The 80-year-old Hwang is also scheduled to meet Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly.

Hwang, widely known as the architect of the North's "juche" ideology of self-reliance, defected to South Korea in the late 1990s.