Former high-ranking North Korean official Hwang Jang-yop has arrived in the U.S. for a ten-day visit.

He will attend a symposium Thursday afternoon hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

During the two-hour event, Hwang will deliver a lecture about the North’s guiding principle of "juche" or the idea of self-reliance, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s power succession plan and human rights violations in the communist country.

While in the U.S., Hwang will also meet with U.S. lawmakers and officials from U.S. civilian organizations before flying to Japan on April fourth.

In Japan, he will meet with Hiroshi Nakai, Japan's minister in charge of abductions committed by North Korea, and the families of Japanese nationals abducted by the North.

Hwang, a former secretary of the ruling North Korean Workers' Party and close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, defected to South Korea in 1997.