Lavrov will spend a day each in Pyongyang and Seoul after attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia on June 29 to July 2, said Alexander Alekseyev, the Russian foreign ministry's special envoy.

"After Jakarta the minister will visit Seoul and Pyongyang before returning to Moscow," the news agency quoted him as saying.

Russia, the two Koreas, China, Japan, and the United States have met twice in Beijing -- in August last year and in February -- since a nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang flared in October 2002, when Washington accused North Korea of running a secret nuclear program based on enriched uranium.

Russia has tried to act as a neutral mediator between North Korea and the United States in their nuclear weapons dispute, although its role has been overshadowed by that of China.

Russia remains one of the few nations that has access to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, with Russian President Vladimir Putin having met him three times since his own election in 2000.

A fixed schedule has yet to be announced, but South Korean officials have said North Korea may sit down this month for new six-nation talks aimed at ending the 20-month-old nuclear standoff.

WAR.WIRE