SEOUL, September 16. /TASS/. The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program may resume before the end of the year, a diplomatic source in Seoul told TASS on Thursday.

"The interested parties, including South Korea, the United States, China, Russia, and Japan, are currently engaged in intensive diplomatic consultations on preparations for somehow restoring the six-party platform, that is, resuming multilateral denuclearization dialogue. Chances are high that all parties, including North Korea, will come to the negotiation table before the end of the year," the source pointed out.

In January 2003, North Korea announced its final withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which it had been party to since 1985. Six-party talks on resolving the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula began in August 2003, involving Russia, the US, China, Japan and the two Korean states. A total of six rounds of talks took place before Pyongyang stated in April 2009 that it would be pointless to continue the negotiations.