Russia, China, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have all agreed on the need for exploratory discussions on resuming the Six-Party Talks, South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kook said Tuesday.

Hwang made the comments to South Korean media following a meeting with Russia’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, Igor Morgulov, in Moscow.

“The five countries have built consensus about the need to have ‘exploratory talks’ to gauge whether North Korea is serious about denuclearization before reopening the Six-Party forum,” Yonhap News Agency quoted Hwang as saying.

According to South Korean media, Hwang also said that the five countries have