U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun is traveling to Europe to discuss denuclearization of North Korea, the State Department said Saturday.

The trip has raised speculation that the U.S. and North Korea are in discussion to choose the venue and agenda of working-level talks that are expected to resume later this month.

The U.S. State Department said Biegun will visit Brussels on Monday and Tuesday and Berlin on Wednesday and Thursday for "meetings with European officials and with [his South Korean counterpart] Lee Do-hoon to advance our shared efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea."

Lee visits Germany from Tuesday to Friday. The U.S. is proposing Sweden as the venue for the talks.

Meanwhile, South Korea has proposed inviting North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to the ASEAN+3 foreign ministerial talks in Bangkok at the end of this month, Japan's Kyodo News reported.

The ASEAN+3 meeting involves the top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan as well as the Southeast Asian bloc's.

