US Willing to Discuss Peace Treaty With N. Korea
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The United States is willing to hold discussions with North Korea on signing the peace treaty the secretive state has asked for once the deadlocked six-party denuclearization talks are resumed, a special U.S. envoy said Friday.
Stephen Bosworth, U.S. representative for North Korea policy, also said that his country is not opposed to additional bilateral talks with the North if it takes place within the context of the multilateral forum.
"The first and foremost among those is, of course, denuclearization, but we also recognize that it will be important to begin discussions on questions regarding a peace treaty, establishment of diplomatic relations (between the United States and North Korea) and the issues of economic and energy assistance to North Korea," he said shortly before leaving Seoul for Tokyo.
"We are prepared to do that in a normal course of events once we have come back into the six-party process and once we have begun to make significant progress, once again, in denuclearization," he added.
South and North Korea remain at war since the Korean War (1950-53) ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The communist state has claimed that the ceasefire agreement poses an obstacle to peace on the Korean Peninsula, calling for the signing of a peace accord.
The special envoy noted that the United States is "prepared to initiate work on other matters of the September 2005 statement," referring to an agreement of the six-party talks under which the North agreed to implement denuclearization in return for political and economic concessions.
He also said that his country is not "philosophically opposed to further bilateral contacts" with North Korea. The official visited Pyongyang last December for talks on the resumption of the nuclear negotiations.
Bosworth speculated that the stalled six-way talks will eventually resume.
"But it's not possible to speculate when that might occur, hopefully in the relatively near future," he said.
The multilateral talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have been suspended since the North declared an eternal boycott last year.
The North refused to participate in the denuclearization talks in retaliation for U.N. sanctions imposed against its regime over the second nuclear test on May 25 last year.
Bosworth, who arrived in Seoul Thursday from a visit to China, met with his South Korean counterpart Wi Sung-lac and Unification Minister Hyun In-taek and talked about North Korea-related issues.
He is scheduled to return home Saturday after a meeting with Japanese officials on the resumption of the six-way talks.