MOSCOW - South Korea's deputy foreign minister on Saturday arrived in the Russian capital for talks aimed at seeking a resolution of the rising tension over North Korea's nuclear program.

"Our government thinks that the role of the Russian government in the process of peaceful resolution of this problem is very important and constructive," Kim Hang-kyung told reporters upon arrival.

Kim said that the United States, China, Japan and Russia "have a joint goal" while addressing North Korea's nuclear program. "They need to resolve this situation peacefully," he said.

Kim said he would hold separate meetings Sunday with Russian deputy foreign ministers Alexander Losyukov and Georgy Mamedov.

South Korean officials have urged North Korea to first scrap its nuclear weapons program to open the way for dialogue with the United States.

Losyukov said Saturday that both the United States and North Korea should search for a solution in a "calm and constructive way," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

"Threats and sanctions are counterproductive," he said.

The standoff began in early December, when North Korea decided to restart its nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement with the United States. It has removed monitoring seals and cameras from its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, expelled U.N. inspectors and signaled it may quit a global nuclear arms control treaty.

Pyongyang has said that it planned to reactivate the nuclear facilities to produce electricity because Washington had halted fuel deliveries. The U.S. embargo was put in place after Pyongyang admitted in October to covertly developing nuclear weapons using enriched uranium.

North Korea says it is willing to resolve concerns over its nuclear program if the United States signs a nonaggression treaty, but Washington has ruled out any talks before Pyongyang changes course.

Moscow has expressed regret over Pyongyang's resumption of its nuclear program, strongly warning its former ally against abandoning the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which seeks to confine nuclear weapons to the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved to reinvigorate Moscow's Soviet-era ties with North Korea, hosting its reclusive leader Kim Jong Il for the second consecutive summer last year. But despite attempts to mediate the impasse, Russia appears to have little leverage over North Korea.

Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, welcomed Moscow's mediation, according to the Interfax news agency.

"We think Russia has significant influence in Pyongyang and we are hoping that by working together we can convince the North Koreans to pull back from the brink and to come back into compliance with their obligations not to develop nuclear weapons," Interfax quoted Vershbow as saying.