A senior United States diplomat will visit South Korea on Sunday afternoon ahead of the inter-Korean summit slated for Friday.

Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will meet with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa and Assistant Foreign Minister Yoon Soon-gu on Monday in Seoul.

Thornton, who is in charge of working-level preparations for the U.S.-North Korea summit, will then meet with Seoul's top nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon on Tuesday.

In the meetings, Thornton and the Seoul officials are expected to have in-depth discussions to coordinate the positions of the two nations regarding the North's denuclearization and establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, ahead of the Friday inter-Korean summit.

The two sides are likely to share their assessments on and discuss their responses to Pyongyang's Saturday announcement to halt nuclear and missile tests and shut down its nuclear test site.

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