SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the United States will have a working-group meeting this week in Seoul ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony next week for the inter-Korean railway and road connection, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) policy, will make a four-day trip to South Korea from Wednesday.

During the trip, Biegun will hold a working-group meeting with Lee Do-hoon, South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs.

Lee and Biegun will make a close discussion on overall issues on the DPRK and the denuclearized Korean Peninsula, including inter-Korean relations, while coordinating ways for substantive progress in the denuclearization and peace regime, according to the ministry.

The working group was launched on Nov. 20 between the two allies to regularly communicate on the DPRK issues.

The senior-level meeting between Seoul and Washington would come ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 26 at the Panmun Station in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong to modernize and eventually connect railway and road across the inter-Korean border.

The two Koreas completed an 18-day joint inspection on the DPRK railways along the western and eastern peninsula on Monday. The two sides already conducted a joint survey on the western road earlier this year.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un agreed to modernize and connect rail and road across the border after their first summit in April at the truce village of Panmunjom.

After their third summit in Pyongyang in September, the two leaders agreed to hold the groundbreaking ceremony for the connections before the end of this year.