The foreign ministers of South Korea and Russia held talks on Monday on issues related to North Korea and bilateral relations.

After the talks in Moscow, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and she shared their assessments of the recent situation on the Korean Peninsula and discussed ways to boost cooperation for the complete denuclearization of the peninsula and lasting peace. 

Kang told a joint press briefing after the meeting that they agreed that now is a critical time to move the peace process forward and that dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea should resume as quickly as possible.

Lavrov said that the only way to make progress in resolving peninsula issues is to seek "peaceful and diplomatic resolutions" and to produce corresponding steps in the process, repeating Moscow's calls for a phased approach to North Korea's denuclearization.

The top diplomats also discussed ways to boost economic cooperation as well as trilateral economic projects involving the two Koreas and Russia.