South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon will launch a U.S.-Russia trip to Washington and Moscow this week to discuss early steps for implementation of the recent joint document adopted in the six-party talks, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Song will leave for Washington on a three-day visit on Thursday and arrive there on Thursday, the ministry said.

During Song's visit to Washington, he will hold talks with his U.S. counterpart, Condoleezza Rice to discuss the denuclearation in DPRK, the ministry said.

Kim Kye-gwan, top negotiator of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for the six-party talks, will arrive in the United States on the day when Song reaches Washington, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said.

The ministry didn't make clear whether Song will hold meetings with Kim. However, it said that Seoul's top nuclear negotiator Chun Young-woo, who will accompany Song to the U.S., might meet Kim in New York, where Kim will hold working-level talks with U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill there during that time.

Song is to head to Moscow next Monday to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, in his first trip to Russia since he took office last month.

Source: Xinhua