Democratic United Party presidential candidate Rep. Moon Jae-in said Friday that he will push to resume the six-party talks on denuclearization of North Korea if elected.

At a meeting with former head of the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks on denuclearization of North Korea Christopher Hill, Moon said that he will try to reopen the talks and to facilitate the execution of the measures included in the Sept. 19 joint statement issued in 2005.

The joint statement, issued after the fourth round of talks, stipulates that Pyongyang will discard its nuclear programs in steps and return to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

“The six-party talks provided a very useful framework for resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. In addition, it was a useful diplomatic frame that could be used for discussing not only the nuclear issue but also other Northeast Asian issues,” Moon said. The six-party talks were discontinued in 2009 after Pyongyang’s failed rocket launch on April 5.

Both Moon and Hill said that the results of the two countries’ presidential elections would not change South Korea-U.S. relations much.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)