South Korea's top security advisor to visit US to discuss DPRK issue

South Korea's top presidential security advisor planned to visit the United States next week to discuss issues on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) 's nuclear threat and the restarting of its Yongbyon reactor, a local daily reported Friday. Kim Jang-soo, top security advisor to South Korean President Park Geun-hye, will travel to Washington to meet with White House national security advisor Susan Rice and other U.S. foreign affairs and security officials for talks about the DPRK nuclear standoff and bilateral security issues, according to the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper. An official at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae told reporters that Kim will visit the U.S. next week, saying that detailed schedules had yet to be decided. His visit came amid heightened concerns over the DPRK's nuclear threats. South Korea's spy agency confirmed on Oct. 8 that the DPRK has restarted its 5-megawatt plutonium-producing reactor in the Yongbyon nuclear complex since around August of this year. South Korea had asked the U.S. to delay the transfer of its wartime operational control from the current deadline of Dec. 2015, citing growing nuclear threats from the DPRK. Seoul has handed over the command of its troops to Washington after the 1950-53 Korean War broke out.