Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat on East Asia, is set to arrive in Seoul on Friday for talks with South Korean officials on North Korea and bilateral alliance issues, officials said.

The U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs will meet with Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun and Lim Sung-nam, Seoul's chief envoy to the six-nation talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons program, later in the day, officials said.

Campbell's visit to Seoul, part of his Asian tour, is aimed at continuing "our close consultation and coordination on the broad range issues of importance to our alliance, including the DPRK (North Korea), economic issues, and regional cooperation" between the allies, the State Department said in a statement.

Diplomatic efforts to resume the six-party talks, last held in late 2008, have been frozen since April, when North Korea defiantly launched a long-range rocket that failed moments after lift-off.

Concerns persist that North Korea might carry out a third underground nuclear test, as its previous launches of long-range missiles were followed by nuclear tests. The international community has warned that North Korea, already under U.N. sanctions for the nuclear tests, will face tougher sanctions if it goes ahead with another test. (Yonhap News)