U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun is set to meet with local counterparts in Tokyo on Thursday as part of a regional tour, a Japanese government official told NK News, in a visit aimed at coordinating policy on regional security issues such as North Korea.

A Japanese government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun was expected to be in Japan from July 9 to 10 to meet with vice foreign minister Takeo Akiba and other officials.

“We are expecting to have discussions on regional issues, including North Korea, and other common challenges in the international community,” the official said, “and to reaffirm close coordination of the Japan-U.S. alliance.”

Japanese officials will also likely hope to be briefed on discussions between Secretary Biegun and South Korean officials this week.

These have included Wednesday talks with Lee Do-hoon, Seoul’s lead negotiator with North Korea, and vice foreign minister Choi Se-young. Secretary Biegun also made a courtesy call on foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha.

The Deputy Secretary of State is expected to meet the newly-appointed head of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) Suh Hoon on Thursday before his departure for Japan.

His visit this week has, however, seen Biegun fail to make headway in long-stalled negotiations with North Korea, amid repeated insistence from Pyongyang in recent days that it is not interested in talks with Washington.

Despite this, the Deputy Secretary of State on Wednesday reiterated his hopes for diplomacy with the DPRK, saying the U.S. was “ready” for dialogue as soon as Pyongyang appointed a new counterpart.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, too, expressed his openness to holding another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“I understand they want to meet and we would certainly do that,” Trump told Gray Television host Greta Van Susteren.

Talks in Seoul this week, then, were likely focused on ways of finding a diplomatic opening with Pyongyang, one expert said.

“There must be a lot to sort out in terms of how we all evaluate what is going on in North Korea, and what possible diplomatic approaches might produce some benefit,” said James Schoff, a senior fellow in the Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Seen in that context, another said, meetings in Tokyo on Thursday and Friday will see Japanese officials work to ensure their interests are served in any future diplomacy.

“After feeling sidelined in the 2018 talks involving North Korea, Japan will want to reiterate the protection of Japanese interests in any potential future talks,” Dr. Sayuri Romei, a public policy fellow and nuclear proliferation expert at the Wilson Center in Washington, told NK News.

“After attempting to take leadership in some foreign policy issues last year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might want to make more proactive steps to have a stronger Japanese presence in any talks about denuclearization.”

But Mintaro Oba, a former State Department official, said that “Japanese officials likely aren’t keen to see major movements in U.S.-North Korea diplomacy this year, so they will be comfortable with the largely passive approach Biegun seems to be taking so far.”

Details of Secretary Biegun’s schedule in Tokyo remain unclear, and a spokesperson for the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs at the U.S. State Department declined to comment on the record regarding details about his schedule.

But Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said at a press conference on Tuesday that “if time permits, I would like to receive a courtesy call from him.”

Edited by Oliver Hotham