Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan says the government should prepare to implement its new policy toward North Korea if there's substantial progress toward ending the North's nuclear program.

The minister made the remark Wednesday at an annual meeting with the heads of South Korea's overseas missions, referring to the president's goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and raising North Korea's annual per capita income to three-thousand U.S. dollars.

He added that despite North Korea's delayed nuclear declaration, a team of U.S. officials is in Pyongyang to discuss the issue.

He said he expects the six-party talks to resume by the end of May.