The top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan are set to hold a meeting in Seoul on Friday to discuss the security situation on the Korean Peninsula amid reports that North Korea has completed preparations for another nuclear test.

Kim Gunn, Seoul's new special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will have bilateral and trilateral meetings with his US counterpart, Sung Kim, and Japan's Takehiro Funakoshi at the foreign ministry headquarters.

Their meetings follow Pyongyang's spate of missile launches, as the intelligence community of Seoul and Washington says it may soon carry out its first nuclear test since 2017. The tripartite session, the first of its kind since the launch of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, is apparently intended to demonstrate close coordination among the regional powers against the North's provocations.

The US State Department said earlier the three sides will discuss a broad range of issues, including the international community's response to North Korea's recent ballistic missile launches and the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. (Yonhap)