Joseph Yun

The top United States negotiator on the North Korean nuclear issue will retire this week, a foreign news report said Tuesday.

The 63-year-old Special Representative for North Korea Policy, Joseph Yun, will retire at the end of the week, CNN reported.

"It was completely my decision to retire at this time," Yun was quoted as telling CNN. He also said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had accepted his resignation.

He was appointed to the current post in October 2016 under the previous Obama administration. Yun flew in to North Korea in June last year to bring home American college student Otto Warmbier, who traveled to the North, was convicted of a crime and fell into a coma. He died days after arriving in the U.S.

Yun's resignation will leave another important post dealing with Korean issues empty, with the seat for the U.S. ambassador in Seoul remaining unfilled for more than a year.

His resignation also comes at a critical diplomatic juncture for possible talks between the U.S. and North Korea after Kim Yong-chol, a senior North Korean ruling party official, told President Moon Jae-in and other South Korean officials that Pyongyang is willing to talk to Americans. (Yonhap)