BEIJING (Yonhap) ― The top nuclear envoys of China and Japan met in Beijing on Friday to discuss ways to resume the long-stalled talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, China’s foreign ministry said Friday.

The talks in Beijing between Wu Dawei and his Japanese counterpart Junichi Ihara came as a top U.S. diplomat handling North Korea is on a three-nation visit to South Korea, Japan and China.

Wu and Ihara “exchanged views on promoting denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and restarting the six-party talks,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

Sung Kim, the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy, is in Seoul for talks with his South Korean counterpart. He will arrive in Beijing next week after visiting Tokyo.

In Seoul, Kim reaffirmed the U.S. stance that Washington won’t resume talks with North Korea unless Pyongyang shows its seriousness about denuclearization. North Korea, which has conducted three nuclear tests, has shown no signs of giving up its nuclear ambition.

“North Korea needs to demonstrate its serious commitment to denuclearization before we can resume any negotiations,” Kim told reporters in Seoul.

The six-party talks grouping South Korea, North Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have been at a standstill since late 2008.