U.S. officials will travel to China this month to hold talks with North Korea on nuclear issues, resuming a dialogue put on hold last year by the death of leader Kim Jong-Il.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, will meet with North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan on February 23.

The United States held two rounds of talks with North Korea last year in Beijing and Geneva aimed at restarting multi-nation aid-for-disarmament negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program. The reclusive nation pulled out of the multi-nation talks in 2009.

But it will be the first such contact since Mr. Kim died in December and power passed to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.