The five countries that negotiate with North Korea in the six-party denuclearization talks have reached consensus on the need to address Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities, resume dialogue and devise ways to lead effective negotiations, a senior Seoul official said Monday.

The official at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry also said that it would be a mistake to think that Washington had closed its doors for dialogue to the reclusive state, after the U.S. blamed the North for the cyberattack on Sony Pictures and toughened economic sanctions against it.

“Consensus has been forged over the need to urgently tackle North Korea’s continued development of nuclear capabilities, restart the denuclearization dialogue process at an early date, and consult over creative ways to lead effective denuclearization talks,” the official told reporters, declining to be named.

He noted that last year, the countries ― South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia ― had “intense consultations” over the so-called “Korean Formula,” Seoul’s initiative for the resumption of the stalled multilateral six-way talks, and that the consensus had been forged during the consultations.

“This year, we plan to play a leading role and make active efforts for the resumption of the six-party process, based on the consensus reached among the five parties,” he said. “Within the six-party framework, we plan to explore ways to hold various talks ― trilateral and bilateral talks as well as inter-Korean dialogue.”

The six-party talks have been stalled since 2008. Beijing, the host of the talks, and Pyongyang have called for the unconditional resumption of the talks, while Seoul and Washington have demanded that Pyongyang first show “sincerity” in its denuclearization commitments.

With the absence of any effective tools to address Pyongyang’s nuclear adventurism, concerns have persisted that the North’s continued development of nuclear capabilities would pose a grave security challenge not only to South Korea and the U.S., but also the entire world through proliferation of nuclear material and technologies to nonnuclear states or terrorists.

Seoul has long questioned Pyongyang’s sincerity about its desire for denuclearization, as the North has adopted a policy of simultaneously pursuing the development of nuclear arms and its economy.

Touching on the strained relations between Washington and Pyongyang, the Seoul official said that the U.S. had not ruled out dialogue with the North, despite its recent criticism of Pyongyang.

“Seoul and Washington have been employing a two-track strategy using both pressure and dialogue, and this is to lead the North to make the right choice,” he said. “It would be a mistake to judge that increasing pressure on the North means stopping dialogue or undermining the efforts for dialogue.”

The bilateral relationship between the U.S. and the North has been deteriorating in recent months, triggering concerns that the efforts to resolve the North’s nuclear issue would further be hampered.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned the possibility of the North collapsing last week, calling it “the most isolated, the most sanctioned, the most cut-off nation on Earth.”

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)