By Jon Herskovitz and Yoko Nishikawa

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States, Japan and South Korea are working on a road map for ending North Korea's nuclear arms plans that could be on the agenda for a U.S. envoy's visit to Pyongyang this week, Japan's Asahi newspaper reported.

Stephen Bosworth, the first envoy sent by U.S. President Barack Obama to the North, is expected to arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday for a three-day stay where he will likely meet top North Korean officials but not leader Kim Jong-il.

Analysts expect the visit to result in a pledge from impoverished Pyongyang that it will return to disarmament-for-aid talks but few expect any breakthroughs in a sputtering six-way nuclear deal aimed at ending the state's atomic ambitions.

The course set for the next several years in the road map includes the removal of North Korea's nuclear facilities, the disposal of its nuclear weapons and material, and the verification of its nuclear program, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

Any visit of a U.S. envoy to the reclusive North is trumpeted by the state's propaganda machine as a victory for leader Kim, whose military-first rule and nuclear arsenal forced the United States to come to Pyongyang with concessions.

But analysts said President Barack Obama's administration may have the upper hand due to the state of the North's broken economy. Fresh U.N. sanctions, imposed as a result of the North's nuclear test in May, and U.S. Treasury action that has targeted its finances have further hurt Pyongyang.

"The real problem with denuclearization is both parties are just testing the waters to see who will act first," said Chon Hyun-joon, an expert on the North at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification.

Prior to his visit, Bosworth consulted with South Korean officials in Seoul. After he returns from Pyongyang, he is slated to brief the other parties in the nuclear negotiations -- China, Japan, Russia and South Korea -- before heading to Washington.

MONEY TROUBLES AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Adding to the uncertainty is a North Korean currency revaluation that reports said has been met with anger from merchants whose cash holdings have mostly disappeared, and citizens facing inflated prices for essentials.

Traders in Dandong, a Chinese border city that is the main gateway for goods in and out of North Korea, have reported that the flow has slowed to a trickle, the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper issued by China's Xinhua news agency, reported.

In normal times, about 200 trucks carrying goods cross the Yalu River bridge there every day. In recent days, the number has fallen to a few dozen, it said.

The paper said traders mostly settle accounts in Chinese yuan, dollars or euros. Analysts said the uncertainty over the North Korean won and the loss of capital among merchants has made settlements more difficult, which has put the brakes on imports.

The paper quoted one Chinese trader as saying the price of rice, maize and other foods in North Korea has risen sharply.

North Korea faces another challenge on Monday when its officials will be grilled about the state's heavily criticized human rights record at a U.N. meeting in Geneva.

The review is shaping up to be a rare moment when the North tries to balance a desire to appear as a normal member of the global community while supporting its cult of personality leadership that has made it an international pariah and regional security threat.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Christine Kim in Seoul and Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Jeremy Laurence)