Foreign Minister Taro Aso has decided to transfer the official in charge of North Korean issues to the embassy in the United States in mid-January as a minister, government sources said.
Akitaka Saiki, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, has been a key player in negotiations with Pyongyang.
For the past three years, he has headed Japan's delegation to working-level talks between Japan and North Korea.
The decision to transfer him to Washington came in light of some progress in issues involving North Korea, including the resumption of bilateral talks after a one-year interval, the sources said.
Aso plans to have Kunio Umeda, deputy director general of the bureau, replace Saiki, the sources said.
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