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outh and North Korean senior officials met in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Friday for a meeting seen as the first move in resuming the stalled Six-Party Talks, which are aimed at quelling North Korea’s nuclear posturing as Indonesia leads ASEAN to help diffuse the region’s thorniest conflicts.

After a two-hour meeting between South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, Wi Sung-lac, and his North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong-ho, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the two sides agreed on a joint effort to resume the talks, which have been stalled since 2008, when North Korea stormed out of the process after a new round of UN sanctions.

“We have agreed to make joint efforts to reopen the Six-Party Talks as soon as possible,” Ri said after the meeting.

Wi said: “I had a very constructive and useful conversation with my counterpart. We agreed to continue to make joint efforts in the process of negotiations for de-nuclearization.”

The two sides also reaffirmed their “willingness to implement” the 2005 statement in which the North agreed to give up its nuclear program, Ri said.

The Six-Party Talks include the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia.

Media outlets have reported that South Korea, the US and other Six-Party members are pushing to reopen the nuclear dialogue forum with a three-step approach in which North Korea will meet with South Korea first, then with the US, for one-on-one talks on de-nuclearization.

The meeting between Wi and Ri was in part meant to pave the way for a higher-level meeting between South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-chun, in Bali, South Korean
diplomats said.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the meeting between the two Koreas further proved that ASEAN and Indonesia as the host and chair nation of ASEAN could provide an atmosphere for peaceful solutions for the region’s most delicate disputes after ASEAN also persuaded China to agree to the historic set of guidelines for cooperation in the South China Sea, reducing tension between four ASEAN countries and China.

The successes are coupled with ASEAN’s consensus of proceeding with five nuclear states to sign the Southeast Asia Nuclear WeaponFree Zone (SEANWFZ) Treaty protocols as well as agreed upon plans to help solve the Thai-Cambodia border conflicts.

“Outcomes don’t have to be in document form. Indonesia isn’t really interested in just adding documents, but we want to add concrete, real things. These last five days, the world is safer as a result of what is happening here,” Marty said.

“SEANWFZ, guidelines on the South China Sea, [plans] for Thailand and Cambodia, East Asia Summit common principles, the region’s disaster management and [meetings] on the Korean Peninsula. It is not a bad week so far. I think it is a real development,” he added.

Marty said during a meeting between the East Asian Summit’s 18 foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, all the results from the ASEAN meetings such as the guidelines for the South China Sea could be accepted by all members.

During a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Clinton commended China and ASEAN for the guidelines surrounding the oil and gas-rich South China Sea, which is also one of the world’s busiest seaways.

“I want to commend China and ASEAN for working so closely together to include implementation guidelines for the declaration of conduct in the South China Sea,” she said.

Clinton and Marty will join 25 other foreign ministers at the ARF, the world’s largest security forum on Saturday.