U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell will visit the Republic of Korea and Japan next week over a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Mark Lippert, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, and Daniel Russel, National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs, will accompany Campbell on the trip slated for Jan. 14-17, the department said in a statement.

It said the trio will meet their counterparts in Seoul and Tokyo to discuss "a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues."

"It's a good chance for us in an interagency way to see both countries after the elections," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a regular news briefing.

A new president and prime minister were elected respectively in Japan and the Republic of Korea last month, and Japan's new Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida has agreed to visit the United States on Jan. 18 at the invitation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.