South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Noh Kyu-duk, will visit the United States next week for talks with his US counterpart, Sung Kim, about efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Noh's four-day trip to Washington, D.C., starting Sunday, comes only about a week after Kim's visit to Seoul early this week, during which the two discussed humanitarian aid to the North amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's protest against military exercises between the South and the US

While in Washington, Noh plans to meet with officials from the State Department, the White House National Security Council and others to follow up on discussions he had with Kim in Seoul, the ministry said.

"We hope that the two countries will have in-depth consultations for an early resumption of the Korean Peninsula peace process," the ministry said.

While in Seoul, Kim made it clear that the US does not have a hostile intent toward the North and renewed his offer to meet with the North "anywhere, at anytime."

Pyongyang has lambasted the military exercise as the "most vivid expression of the US hostile policy" toward the North and warned of a "serious security crisis." (Yonhap)