United Nations, Aug 3 (IANS): UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will depart Aug 6 on a trip to quake-affected areas of Japan, and later to South Korea, his spokesman Martin Nesirky has said.

"While in Japan, he will visit Fukushima to see first-hand the devastation caused by the March earthquake and tsunami in the city of Soma," Xinhua quoted as saying at a daily briefing.

"He will visit an evacuation centre and speak with students at a high school in Fukushima city," he said.

Ban will later travel to Tokyo, where he will meet Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.

"During his visit, the secretary-general hopes to express his admiration to the government and to the people of Japan as they work towards recovery from the recent triple catastrophe," Nesirky said.

After his stay in Japan, Ban will travel to his native South Korea, "where he will launch the Global Model United Nations Conference in Incheon," the spokesman said.

"He will meet with President Lee Myung-bak and Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, the speaker of the National Assembly, and the National Assembly's Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Working Group, as well as with members of the Global Compact Korea network," Nesirky added.

Ban will return to the UN headquarters in New York Aug 14.