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North, South vow to pursue treaty to end Korean War

The leaders of North and South Korea pledged yesterday to seek a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and expand projects to reduce tension on the world's last Cold War frontier, a day after Pyongyang committed to an unprecedented step toward dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun signed the agreement after three days of meetings in Pyongyang in only the second-ever such summit between the countries.

The two Koreas "agreed to closely cooperate to end military hostility and ensure peace and easing of tension on the Korean peninsula," the joint statement said.

Substantive progress on any peace treaty would require the participation of the US and China, which also fought in the conflict. South Korea never signed the 1953 armistice ending the war.

Both leaders also "agreed to cooperate to push for the issue of declaring the end" of the Korean War by staging a meeting of the "three or four heads of related states."

US President George W. Bush said last month he was willing to formally end the Korean War, but said it could only happen after the North's total nuclear disarmament.

The summit ended a day after an agreement between North Korea and the US along with other regional powers at China-hosted arms talks where Pyongyang promised to disable its main nuclear facilities and fully declare its nuclear programs by Dec. 31.

The move would be the biggest step North Korea has taken to scale back its nuclear ambitions after decades of seeking to develop the world's deadliest weapons, and Bush hailed it as a key for "peace and prosperity" in northeast Asia.

However, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said his party had decided yesterday that sanctions against Pyongyang should continue at least another six months because it has yet to meet its commitments.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party decided to extend Japan's economic sanctions -- first imposed after North Korea's nuclear test last October and extended in April for six months -- for another six months, saying Pyongyang has yet to take concrete steps to disable its nuclear programs.

Japanese officials have also complained of little progress made in the issue of its citizens allegedly abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Koreas accord yesterday cited the nuclear issue only in a single sentence, saying the North and South would make "joint efforts to ensure the smooth implementation" of previous accords from the six-nation arms talks "for the solution of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula."
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