The new U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights will visit South Korea from Monday to Wednesday, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.

During the visit, Ambassador Julie Turner will meet with government officials, civic organizations, journalists and North Korean defectors to discuss ways to improve the human rights situation in the North and facilitate reunions of separated families.

Turner took office on Friday, ending over six years of vacancy at the post since the last envoy Robert King retired in early 2017.

The ambassadorial post was first established under the North Korean Human Rights Act that took effect in 2004.

President Joe Biden nominated Turner to the post back in January while she was serving as director of the Office of East Asia and the Pacific in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

At a Senate confirmation hearing in May, Turner introduced herself as a Korean-American adoptee who had a childhood dream to serve the country that welcomed her.

She pledged to work with South Korea and other allies to reinvigorate "accountability" efforts against those responsible for human rights violations in North Korea.