Top South Korean and U.S. diplomats have met in Washington and discussed efforts to hold follow-up talks with North Korea.

South Korea’s top nuclear negotiator, Wi Sung-lac, met with the U.S. State Department’s Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Robert Einhorn on Thursday to assess whether any developments have been made in the North since South Korea and the U.S. urged it to implement denuclearization measures.

Seoul and Washington made such calls during an inter-Korean contact in Bali in July and during a North Korea-U.S. high-level meeting in New York later that month.

In particular, Wi and Einhorn thoroughly analyzed reports from Russia on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s pledge that the North was prepared to resume the multilateral talks with no conditions and place a moratorium on testing weapons of mass destruction. Kim made the vow last month during summit talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Ahead of the meeting with Einhorn, Wi also met Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, and chief U.S. envoy to the six-party nuclear talks Clifford Hart. Wi and the U.S. officials discussed efforts to resume the stalled six-nation talks and North Korea’s nuclear issue.