South Korea and four nations involved in the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program have reached a consensus on conditions for resuming the long-stalled talks, a source said Thursday.



South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have shared the need to have exploratory dialogue gauging Pyongyang's willingness to denuclearize before the six-party talks involving the North resume formally, according to the source.



The remarks confirmed recent comments made by Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea's top nuclear envoy, on Tuesday in Moscow, where he and his Russian counterpart discussed ways to reopen the denuclearization talks. He has recently held bilateral or trilateral meetings with his four other counterparts.



Hwang said that the consensus will be delivered to Pyongyang in an appropriate manner, expressing hope that North Korea could respond to such a request with sincerity.



The source said that such a consensus came out of the common belief among the five nations that there is a need to break the status quo as North Korea has been advancing its nuclear capabilities. Also, the denuclearization talks should be resumed as early as possible.



But it is not clear when and how the consensus will be delivered to North Korea, but in principle it will be better to do so as soon as possible, according to the source.



The six-party talks have been dormant since late 2008 when Pyongyang abruptly walked away from the negotiation table. Following a 2013 nuke test, North Korea has demanded the unconditional resumption of the six-party talks, but Seoul and Washington have claimed that the North should first show its sincerity for denuclearization.



Exploratory talks can be held without strings attached to test North Korea's willingness to abandon its nuke program before the six-party talks formally resume.



The format of such talks can be seen as a compromise as Seoul and Washington stressed that Pyongyang show sincerity toward denuclearization, while the North, China and Russia put more focus on the reopening of the six-party talks without preconditions.



But it is not clear whether North Korea will accept the offer by the five nations, given Pyongyang's deteriorating relations with Washington or whether having exploratory talks could eventually lead to the resumption of the six-party talks. (Yonhap)