Seoul and Washington seem to face increasing difficulties in sticking to their conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs.

A senior South Korean official was quoted by local media Tuesday as reaffirming that the multilateral negotiations, which have been suspended since late 2008, would not restart unless Pyongyang demonstrated its sincerity about denuclearization through concrete actions. His remark was interpreted as implying Seoul and Washington had managed to put a lid on what appeared to be emerging differences between them over the settings for reopening the nuclear negotiations that also involve China, Japan and Russia.

The U.S. recently seemed to be warming to China’s proposal to get the six-party talks back on track. South Korea’s top nuclear envoy Cho Tae-yong met his U.S. counterpart Glyn Davies in Washington early this week in the wake of a trip there by Wu Dawei, China’s point man on Korean Peninsular affairs. Wu traveled to Pyongyang on Monday to persuade North Korean officials to accept its offer, details of which have yet to be clarified. The North has expressed its willingness to return to the negotiating table, but without taking any prior steps.

Cho is scheduled to visit Beijing later this month for consultations with Wu, which are expected to shape up the conclusion of the latest flurry of diplomatic maneuvers to restart the long-stalled denuclearization talks.

Seoul’s recent coordination with Washington may put some additional pressure on China, the host of the six-party talks, to push Pyongyang to move closer to their demands.

But South Korea is also increasingly gravitating to the increasing momentum toward the resumption of the multilateral negotiations as China is strengthening its push and the U.S. feels the need to keep in check the North’s recent nuclear activities.

If this situation continues, it may sideline Seoul in the preliminary stage, and draw it into the nuclear talks on terms that are not its own. Seoul may also face a dilemma, if progress is made in the multilateral negotiations when inter-Korean relations continue to remain stalled.

South Korean diplomatic strategists are now required more than ever to work out sophisticated and flexible approaches to keep the initiative in the tough process of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue and improving cross-border ties.