South Korea's chief nuclear envoy said Thursday that he has narrowed differences with his Chinese counterpart on conditions about restarting negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program but added Pyongyang has yet to show its seriousness about denuclearization.
  

Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea's chief negotiator to the long-stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, made the remarks after holding a bilateral meeting with Wu Dawei in Beijing.
  

"I had productive and in-depth consultations with Special Representative Wu Dawei and both sides were approached by some opinions on conditions to resume the six-party talks," Hwang told reporters, without elaborating on the details.
  

South Korea and China also agreed that they should work together to prevent North Korea from conducting "bad behaviors," including a nuclear test.
  

Last week, the top U.S. diplomat handling North Korea, Ambassador Sung Kim, told reporters in Beijing that Pyongyang was not ready for "serious and substantive" nuclear talks with Washington, indicating that an idea of holding a bilateral meeting in Beijing with North Korean officials had been discussed.
  

North Korea shifted the blame for a deadlock on the nuclear diplomacy to the U.S. on Sunday, revealing that Pyongyang invited Kim to visit the North for direct talks, but Washington rejected the offer.
  

The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs -- involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia -- have been dormant since late 2008, when Pyongyang walked away from the bargaining table.
  

Pyongyang has called for the resumption of the six-party talks without preconditions following its third nuclear test in February 2013. But Seoul and Washington have insisted that the North should first show its sincere commitment toward denuclearization. (Yonhap)