US envoy for DPRK to visit Japan, S. Korea

US Special Representative for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Stephen Biegun will visit Japan and South Korea next week, said the US State Department on Friday.

Biegun will travel to Japan from August 19 to 20 and Seoul from August 20 to 22 to meet with officials there to discuss the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, said the department in a statement.

The US envoy's trip came amid tensions on the peninsula following Pyongyang's short-range projectile launch earlier on Friday, the sixth of its kind in the past three weeks and seen as a protest against the ongoing US-South Korean military drills.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week told the press that he was hopeful that Washington and Pyongyang would get back to the negotiating table in the coming weeks.