By Kim Bo-eun
China and North Korea are expected to reiterate their demands for signing the peace treaty in the upcoming denuclearization talks with the United States to put an end to the existing armistice, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The question is: Is the U.S. willing to put it on the table to make the North suspend or give up its nuclear program?
Analysts say Washington is holding the key to the negotiations over the peace treaty, if any.
The idea of the peace treaty gained traction after Kyodo News Agency reported Sunday that Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed it to U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call last month.
Kyodo analyzed Xi's remarks as implying the four-nation peace treaty would likely replace the 1950-1953 Korean War armistice signed by North Korea, China and the UN.
It is not known, however, what Trump thinks about it.
Washington has maintained that maximum pressure against Pyongyang should continue until it achieves complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear program.
The Trump administration's newly appointed National Security Chief John Bolton, a North Korea hawk, has opposed the idea of a peace treaty.
“They took the heavy oil shipments and yet did not dismantle their nuclear program. There's no way we should give North Korea a peace treaty,” he said in an interview with Radio Free Asia last month.
In the late 1990s, the four states held talks for a peace treaty, but failed to achieve peace because Pyongyang insisted the U.S. troops in the South should leave.
A four-nation peace treaty appears difficult, as Pyongyang is likely to make the same call for the troops to pull out _ which is something Washington will not accept.
The idea of a four-nation treaty is also in the statement made at the second inter-Korean summit in October 2007.
“We agree that we should put an end to the current state of armistice and establish a lasting system of peace, and to cooperate so the leaders of the three or four directly-involved countries meet on the Korean peninsula to state the end of the war,” the statement says.
The three nations refer to South and North Korea and the U.S. and the four nations are these countries plus China.
The idea of a treaty came up when President Moon Jae-in stated the Seoul-Pyongyang and Pyongyang-Washington summits could lead to a three-way summit of the Koreas and the U.S., last month.
Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet on April 27, and Kim is set to meet Trump in May to discuss the regime's denuclearization.
Moon's remarks were seen to reflect the big picture of ending the armistice and achieving lasting peace on the peninsula.
However, a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters on Monday that a three-way summit should be prioritized over a four-nation negotiation.
“A summit of South and North Korea and the U.S. is what we wish for and what we hope will take place,” the official said.