Top North Korean and Russian officials agreed to redouble efforts to revive the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program when they met in Moscow last week, the North's official news agency said Tuesday.
  

President Vladimir Putin and Choe Ryong-hae, special envoy of the North's leader Kim Jong-un, also agreed to improve political, economic and military exchanges between the two countries in 2015, reported the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). 
   
Next year, Korea will commemorate the 70th anniversary of its liberation from Japan's colonial rule and Russia will mark the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II.
   
The KCNA said that Choe conveyed Kim's letter to Putin but stopped short of revealing details.
   
Speculation has grown about the possibility of summit talks between Putin and Kim early next year in the wake of Choe's weeklong trip to Russia.
   
The KCNA summarized the results of Choe's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
   
The two sides decided to step up efforts to restart the six-way talks without any preconditions and discussed ways to create the mood for that, it said. The now-suspended negotiations also involve South Korea, the U.S., China, and Japan.
  
The North has called for the immediate resumption of the talks but the U.S. has insisted it to take initial steps towards denuclearization.
   
Choe, the Workers' Party of Korea secretary, and Lavrov also agreed to bring Pyongyang-Moscow relations to a higher level including closer cooperation on the global stage, according to the KCNA.
  
Pyongyang is under growing international pressure for its human rights problem and weapons of mass destruction program.
   
Choe, one of the closest aides to the North Korean leader, traveled to Russia from Nov. 17-24. He was accompanied by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, Vice Economy Minister Ri Kwang-gun, and No Kwang-chol, deputy chief of the General Staff of the North's military.
   
Kim Kye-gwan has long handled Pyongyang's nuclear negotiations with Washington and other members of the six-way talks. (Yonhap)