U.S. Special Representative for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Stephen Biegun will visit Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) next week, said the U.S. State Department on Friday. 
  
Biegun will travel to Japan from August 19 to 20 and Seoul from August 20 to 22 to meet with officials there to discuss the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, said the department in a statement. 

The U.S. envoy's trip came amid tensions on the peninsula following Pyongyang's short-range projectile launch earlier on Friday, the sixth of its kind in the past three weeks and seen as a protest against the ongoing U.S.-ROK military drills. 

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week told the press that he was hopeful that Washington and Pyongyang would get back to the negotiating table in the coming weeks.

The DPRK said on Saturday that its top leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test of a "new weapon" the previous day. 

Kim "guided the test-fire of (a) new weapon again on Friday morning," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. "The national defense scientists showed a perfect result in the test-fire, too, and helped cement bigger confidence in this weapon system."

"It is our party's goal of defense building to possess invincible military capabilities no one dare provoke and to keep bolstering them," Kim was quoted as saying. "Everyone should remember that it is the party's core plan and fixed will for defense building to possess such a powerful force strong enough to discourage any forces from daring to provoke us." 

The ROK military said on Friday that the DPRK fired two projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast. 

(With input from Xinhua)