SEOUL (AFP) – The U.S. special envoy on human rights in North Korea is to visit South Korea this week to meet with senior Seoul diplomats and defectors from the reclusive North, according to the foreign ministry in Seoul.

Envoy Robert King arrived Sunday for the six-day trip and will meet senior officials on Tuesday including South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Wi Sung-Lac, and Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek, the Yonhap news agency said.
On his second visit to Seoul since his appointment in 2009, King will also meet North Korean defectors and human rights activists for briefings on the situation in the communist North, the foreign ministry's spokesman said.
Human rights groups and foreign governments say the impoverished North has one of the world's most dismal human rights records, which King -- who is responsible for Washington's policy on North Korean refugees and food aid -- last year called ""appalling"".
Pyongyang has not allowed visits by King, his predecessor or UN human rights envoys, criticizing efforts to scrutinize its human rights record as political meddling.