Russia’s foreign minister will visit Pyongyang late this week amid escalating tension among nations concerned over North Korea’s April fifth rocket launch and boycott of the six-party nuclear talks.

The North decided to boycott the multilateral disarmament talks after the U.N. Security Council adopted a presidential statement condemning the North Korean rocket launch last week.

According to diplomatic sources, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will likely attempt to persuade the North to return to the six-way talks.

Lavrov is also expected to make it clear to the North that its expulsion of international nuclear inspectors and the restart of its nuclear facilities are not helpful.

The minister has successfully broken previous deadlocks in the six-way discussions.