As the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year, Cambodia is committed to lobbying the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK) to return to the six-party talks in order to end the nuclear program, said a Cambodian diplomat on Tuesday.

"As the ASEAN chair, we would do our best to lobby the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to resume the six-party talks in order to end the nuclear weapons testing in exchange for food aid from the United States," Long Visalo, a Secretary of State at Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a meeting with Park Hae-yun, visiting Director General of South- Asian and Pacific Affairs at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The six-party talks began in August 2003 as a forum focusing on the DPRK's nuclear program and were halted in April, 2009 when the DPRK announced that it would no longer take part in the talks in a reaction to the international condemnation of its long range missile test.

Park Hae-yun said that South Korea was pleased that Cambodia played a mediating role in the Korean peninsula dispute, saying that Cambodia's efforts to bring the DPRK back to the six-party talks would ensure regional security, peace and stability.

The countries directly involved in the six-party talks are South Korea, the DPRK, China, Russia, the United States of America and Japan.

During the meeting, both sides also highlighted good cooperation between Cambodia and South Korea in all fields, especially in the sector of tourism, trade and investment.