U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Robert King and other U.S. government officials will visit North Korea next week.

State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters that King will lead a team of food security experts, which is tasked with assessing food security needs in the North.

Toner said that the special envoy will also raise the issue of the grim human rights conditions in North Korea during his trip.

King is scheduled to visit the communist country from May 24th through the 28th. He is the first high-level U.S. government official to visit North Korea since the U.S. halted food aid to the North in August 2009.

King and his delegation are focusing on figuring out how much food North Korea will need while checking the facts of a recent World Food program report on the North’s food conditions.

The delegation will also discuss with North Korea ways to ensure the transparent distribution of food aid offered by the outside world and to strengthen the monitoring of food distribution.