Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of the inception of the Six-Party Talks (SPT). Since North Korea's third nuclear test in February, there have been voices, especially among some US and South Korean analysts, bashing the SPT and claiming it is ineffective, or even calling for an official announcement of the SPT's death.

Ten years have passed. There are some who think the SPT, the first ever multilateral approach to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue, will fail like two previous endeavors - the Joint Declaration on The Denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula signed by the two Koreas in 1991 and the US-North Korea Agreed Framework reached in 1994. Despite such pessimism, one fact has not been affected: There is no better mechanism that can replace the SPT, and all six parties' agreement remains an indispensable prerequisite of any practical solution to the North Korean nuclear issue.

In recent years, leadership transitions took place in all of the six countries. There has been speculation as to whether this would mean prominent policy shifts regarding the SPT. Nevertheless, the frequent diplomatic contact among all the relevant parties since May hints at a potential resumption of the SPT, which stalled in 2008.

It is still too early to say that the SPT has failed. One popular theory is that the SPT will be replaced by US-North Korea bilateral talks. But even if it reaches any agreement with Pyongyang, Washington needs to share with other parties, especially China and Russia, not only the political responsibility on the nuclear issue, but also economic compensation for North Korea. The US also has to bring in Japan and South Korea, two of its close allies in Northeast Asia. From this perspective, the SPT remains a necessary, useful multilateral framework.

North Korea has made clear its desire to return to the SPT, which some believe stems from domestic pressure and external sanctions.

Nonetheless, it brings an opportunity to alleviate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

While Pyongyang has to deal with its serious trust deficit due to repeated nuclear and missile tests, its positive signal should be echoed with encouraging responses, rather than tough rhetoric.

In the past decade, different calculations of all six parties on the SPT became serious obstacles during the implementation of the agreements reached during the SPT.

Finding ways to coordinate each party's priorities in the negotiations remains a challenging task. But this deserves effort from all parties involved, for each side will be the beneficiary of the cleaning up of the Cold War legacy on the peninsula.