North Korea’s vice foreign minister Kim Kye-kwan has left for New York to attend high-level talks between the U.S. and North Korea.

Kim arrived at the Beijing Capital International Airport late Tuesday morning on a regular flight of North Korea’s Air Koryo. He then departed for the U.S. on an Air China flight.

The vice foreign minister is expected to attend a forum hosted by private research institutes and take part in the U.S.-North Korea bilateral talks from Thursday through Friday.

This is the first North Korea-U.S. dialogue since the U.S. State Department's Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth visited the communist nation in late 2009.