Kelly will meet South Korean Foreign Minister Bank Ki-Moon Monday before going to Japan, where he will link up with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage for a US-Japan strategic dialogue.

The United States confers closely with Japan and South Korea on North Korea policy, as part of cooperation which has tightened since the nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002.

Washington and Seoul hope a second round of six-nation crisis talks, also taking in North Korea, Russia and China, will take place as soon as next month.

The United States wants verifiable pledges by North Korea to eliminate its alleged uranium enrichment program, plutonium reprocessing and existing atomic weapons.

North Korea offered recently to freeze its nuclear weapons drive in return for concessions, including an end to US sanctions and a resumption of energy assistance.

Pyongyang showed an unofficial US delegation in early January what it said was plutonium but rejected US accounts of a 2002 meeting in which Pyongyang admitted to a uranium program.

WAR.WIRE