Senior US envoy to visit South Korea, China, Japan

US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will begin a visit on Sunday to South Korea, China and Japan amid heightened regional tensions, the State Department said on Thursday.

The visit to Seoul will provide an opportunity "to follow up on last month's US- ROK (Republic of Korea) strategic dialogue and to continue to coordinate closely on our shared goal of the denuclearization of North Korea," the department said in a statement.

"While in Beijing, Burns will meet with senior Chinese officials on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues," the statement said.

Burns' talks in Tokyo would focus on regional economic and security issues and bilateral cooperation on matters of "global concern," the statement added.

Territorial disputes and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit last month to the controversial Yasukuni shrine that honors Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A war criminals from the World War II, have roiled relations among the three Asian nations.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its annual joint military drills with the United States, known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, would proceed as planned, starting late February and raising concerns about a potential confrontation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as Pyongyang called the drills "little short of the declaration of an all-out nuclear war."