Seoul (VNA) - Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Song Min-soon and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have exchanged views on the upcoming six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. They agreed to make substantial progress in the talks, the RoK's Foreign Ministry said in a news release on Jan. 31.

The two ministers examined the latest developments surrounding the nuclear issues and discussed measures that should be taken in the next session of the six-party talks set for Feb. 8.

The two officials agreed on the necessity for both countries to work closely with each other and urge each country concerned to adhere to the joint statement adopted by the six nations on Sept. 19, 2005, in which Pyongyang agreed to give up its nuclear programmes in exchange for security guarantee, economic assistance and normalisation of Pyongyang-Washington relations, the news release said.

The third session of the fifth round of the six-party talks, involving China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the RoK, Russia and Japan, will be resumed on Feb. 8 in Beijing, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.-Enditem