Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan says bringing North Korea back to the six-party talks and resuming the denuclearization process soon are urgent tasks facing South Korea.

Yu said at a seminar in Seoul commemorating the second anniversary of the inauguration of the Lee Myung-bak administration that South Korea is making diplomatic efforts to resume the denuclearization talks.

He said the South will continue to closely monitor the results of North Korean-Chinese discussions on the issue and will discuss the matter during strategic ministerial-level talks between South Korea and the U.S. this week.

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth will visit Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo this week, and top South Korean nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac has already left for China to coordinate opinions on the North Korean issue.

Yu said that sanctions on the Stalinist nation will not be lifted as long as the dismantlement of the North Korean nuclear program remains at a stalemate. He stressed that a peace treaty, likewise, is only possible when there is progress in denuclearization.