The United States says its diplomat in charge of North Korean policy is stepping down after rare talks next week with delegates from Pyongyang aimed at the possible restart of nuclear negotiations.

A U.S. spokesman said Wednesday that diplomat Stephen Bosworth will be replaced by Glyn Davies, the current U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner, in comments to reporters, referred to Bosworth as “a storied diplomat and dedicated public servant” and described the move as “a change in personnel, not in policy.” Bosworth has continued to serve as law school dean at Tufts University near Boston since his appointment as special representative on North Korean policy in 2009.

Toner said the upcoming talks in Geneva with North Korean envoys grew out of preliminary contacts between the two sides, which occurred earlier this year on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. He said Washington is hoping to see “a seriousness of purpose” by Pyongyang about ending its nuclear weapons program when the two sides meet Monday.

The Obama administration has resisted recent calls from China and North Korea to restart full, six-party denuclearization talks, until Pyongyang makes clear its intention to disarm before those talks resume.

The United States and South Korea, along with China, Russia and Japan, had been negotiating with the impoverished North for most of the past decade to get it to give up its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for food, energy and aid. Pyongyang quit those talks in 2009 and later conducted its second nuclear test and further testing of its ballistic missiles.