WASHINGTON — A U.S. envoy will hold talks with North Korea on its nuclear program in Beijing next week, the first such negotiations since the death of the nation’s longtime leader Kim Jong Il.

Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, will meet Feb. 23 with North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters today.

It will be the third round of bilateral talks since last summer, aimed at restarting six-nation aid-for-disarmament negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear program. The reclusive nation pulled out of the multination talks in 2009.

But it will be the first such contact since Kim died Dec. 17 and power passed to his untested youngest son, Kim Jong Un. It could signal the new regime’s willingness to deal with Washington and address international concerns over its nuclear and missile programs.