U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun began his official schedule in Seoul on Thursday by meeting with his counterpart, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon.

Biegun met with Lee over breakfast Thursday morning and reportedly discussed South Korea's planned provision of food aid to North Korea as well as the North’s firing of short-range projectiles into the East Sea last Saturday.

Biegun is scheduled to meet other officials and experts during his two-day official visit to Seoul, such as Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, and either National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong or Deputy Director Kim Hyun-chong.

Biegun will see his counterpart Lee again on Friday for a working-group meeting on the denuclearization of North Korea and bilateral relations of Seoul and Pyongyang. 

Key issues such as food aid to North Korea as well as the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, which has been shuttered since 2016, will also be discussed.

It is Biegun's first visit to Seoul since the collapse of the second North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi in February.

[Photo : YONHAP News]