Kim's visit will come a week after a surprise meeting on Friday between the North and South Korean top nuclear envoys on the sidelines of a key Asian regional security forum in Indonesia, and the next day's brief encounter between the two Korean foreign ministers.
"(The New York meeting) will be an exploratory meeting to determine if North Korea is prepared to affirm its obligations under international and Six Party Talk commitments, as well as take concrete and irreversible steps toward denuclearization," America's chief diplomat Clinton said.
Washington and Beijing have agreed on a three-stage process to resume so-called six-party talks, which also involve Russia and Japan. The first stage is the two Koreas engaging bilaterally, the second involves talks between the North and the United States, and the third stage is the six-party talks.
The contacts at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit were interpreted as hinting at a progress toward unblocking the deadlock in inter-Korean relations. READ FULL STORY
