South Korea's top nuclear envoy will visit Russia next week for discussions on resuming the long-stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Hwang Joon-kook, Seoul's chief nuke negotiator, will depart to Moscow on Monday for a three-day visit to hold talks with Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Morgulov Igor, Russia's top nuke envoy, according to the foreign ministry.

"They plan to discuss recent developments on the Korean Peninsula as well as how to cope with North Korea's nuclear issue, including ways to resume the denuclearization talks," Han Hye-jin, deputy spokesperson at the foreign ministry, told a press briefing.

The six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, have been dormant since late 2008 when Pyongyang abruptly left the negotiation table.

A flurry of diplomatic efforts to resume the denuclearization talks have been under way at a time when North Korea has advanced its nuclear capabilities.

Earlier this month, Hwang visited China to meet with his counterpart Wu Dawei to discuss the North's nuclear weapons program.

He told reporters in Beijing that he and Wu have narrowed differences on conditions about restarting negotiations over the North's nuclear issue but added Pyongyang has yet to show its sincerity toward denuclearization.

North Korea has demanded the resumption of the six-party talks without conditions, but Seoul and Washington have said that the North should first demonstrate its seriousness about denuclearization.

North Korea has increasingly got closer to Russia in recent months, apparently because its relations with China, the North's long-time ally, have been strained following its nuclear test in 2013.

Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov said on Feb. 8 that Moscow's move to improve ties with North Korea will be made in a way not to hamper interests of other neighboring countries. Russia said it will do its part to lead the North to give up its nuclear program. (Yonhap)