The Foreign Ministry believes the U.S. and North Korea will discuss a wide variety of agendas regarding denuclearization and bilateral relations during talks to be held in New York this week.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said at a regular news briefing Tuesday that the recent denuclearization talks between the two Koreas have made possible a wide variety of bilateral and multilateral contact. He said in that sense, the North Korea-U.S. contact may be interpreted as the beginning of another step towards realizing six-party nuclear talks.

Cho said that whether the bilateral talks between North Korea and the U.S. can lead to the resumption of the six-way talks would be predicted after reviewing how the meeting plays out.

On whether the sinking of the South Korean Cheonan naval vessel and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island are linked to the resumption of the six-party talks, Cho said that South Korean sentiments would not allow the provocations to be left out. Cho said that the two attacks unavoidably have a sizable impact on the six-way dialogue.