South Korean nuclear envoy to visit North

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) - South Korea will send a delegation of nuclear experts to North Korea this week to survey its unused nuclear fuel rods, the South Korean Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday.

The group led by Hwang Joon-kook, the director general of the ministry's North Korean nuclear affairs bureau, will travel to North Korea via Beijing on Thursday. No date for their return was given.

The Foreign Ministry said the visit was agreed upon during bilateral talks last month in Beijing. The group was to survey and study the technical and economic feasibility of removing North Korea's fuel rods for use by South Korea.

The removal of the North Korea's unused nuclear fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear facilities is part of the process agreed upon during six-party talks that also involved China, Russia, the United States and Japan. The removal of the rods would complete phase two of the North's denuclearization process.