Moscow welcomed Pyongyang's willingness to return to the negotiating table over the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, a senior Russian diplomat said Friday.

"Pyongyang deserves a positive mark for its readiness to return to the negotiating table following weeks of nuclear threats, orders to prepare for missiles strikes and other belligerent rhetoric," Interfax news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry special envoy Grigory Logvinov as saying.

Earlier in the day, a special envoy of Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), said Pyongyang is ready to work with parties concerned to solve relevant issues through multiform dialogue and consultation, including the six-party talks.

Choe Ryong Hae said during his visit to China that the DPRK is willing to adopt active moves to safeguard peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

The six-party talks, which group the DPRK, South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, were launched in 2003 but stalled in December 2008. The DPRK quit the talks in April 2009.

Choe, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army and a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, arrived in Beijing Wednesday.