Stephen Bosworth, U.S. envoy on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), arrived in Seoul late Tuesday, as part of a trip to Northeast Asia that will also bring him to China and Japan.

During his two-day stay in Seoul, the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea will meet with South Korea's chief negotiator to the six-party nuclear talks Wi Sung-lac, and Foreign Minister Kim Sung- hwan.

The envoy's Northeast Asian trip is expected to lay foundations for the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington later this month, Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman said Monday.

The flurry of diplomatic activities come after Pyongyang, which once declared the six-party talks dead, expressed its will to return to the negotiating table while claiming it has developed a new, highly sophisticated uranium enrichment facility.

The last round of talks was hosted by China in December 2008.