Japan's new top envoy to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program will visit South Korea this week for talks with his counterparts and other senior officials from the region, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Kimihiro Ishikane, director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, will take part in a multilateral forum on the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative on Wednesday, the ministry said in a press release.

The initiative is one of President Park Geun-hye's key foreign policy objectives, which aims to strengthen regional cooperation by first building trust through cooperation on soft issues, such as nuclear safety, disaster management and the environment.

Other participants include Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin.

Ishikane was recently appointed to replace Junichi Ihara as chief of the Asian affairs bureau and chief delegate to the six-party talks, which have been stalled since late 2008 amid North Korea's repeated nuclear tests.

The talks also involve South Korea, China, Russia and the United States.

The ministry will also sponsor a separate forum hosted by the Sejong Institute, a private think tank near Seoul, from Tuesday through Thursday, which will draw more than 200 government officials and experts from the region to discuss the initiative, with a special focus on energy security, cyberspace, the environment and disaster management. (Yonhap)