South Korea and the US have already begun talks about a possible agreement with North Korea formally ending the 1950 to 1953 war on the peninsula, the US ambassador to Seoul said yesterday.
"I think that we have already begun consultations with the South Korean government in order to develop a common approach to these talks," ambassador Alexander Vershbow told a forum.
He said it would take some time to negotiate "all aspects of a peace agreement that is not just a brief declaration that says the war is over, but also will involve all kinds of provisions including military confidence-building measures."
North Korea must verifiably dismantle its nuclear weapons before any peace pact, US President George W. Bush told his South Korean counterpart Roh Moo-Hyun in Sydney last week.
But Vershbow was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying preliminary talks on a peace treaty could be held before the end of denuclearization.
He said that the two Koreas will be the principal participants in the process, with the US and China playing key supporting roles.
Roh has said that negotiations on formally ending the state of war with North Korea will be the focus of his summit next month in Pyongyang with leader Kim Jong-il.
The conflict, in which US-led UN forces fought for South Korea and China backed the North, ended with an armistice -- which South Korea did not sign -- and not a permanent peace treaty.
In a six-nation February accord the communist state agreed to declare and disable all its nuclear programs in return for aid, security guarantees and major diplomatic benefits.
These could include normalized relations between North Korea and the US and Japan, an end to US trade sanctions and a formal peace treaty.
In July the North, which tested an atomic weapon last October, took the first step by shutting down its only operating reactor at Yongbyon.
Meanwhile, US, Chinese and Russian experts were set to continue their tour of North Korea's main nuclear complex yesterday, after US officials said the communist country had cooperated with their requests.
The US officials were in North Korea to determine how to disable the Yongbyon facility so it cannot produce more bombs, part of an agreement reached between US and North Korean envoys earlier this month.
The US delegation was to return to the capital, Pyongyang, for discussions with North Korean officials, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.
The leader of the delegation, the State Department's top Korea expert Sung Kim, told officials in Washington they "saw everything they had asked to see," McCormack said.
Allowing the visit is the latest positive step by North Korea toward disarming.
Vershbow praised the North yesterday for its cooperation and urged the communist regime to continue to follow through with its disarmament pledge.
"We hope it means that the North Korean leadership is making the strategic decision to denuclearize and join the international community," Vershbow told the security forum in Seoul, referring to the US-led team's trip to Yongbyon.
"All eyes are on the North Korean leadership's next steps," he said.
Buoyed by progress in the disarmament process, Vershbow even suggested on Wednesday that Bush and Kim could hold a summit if North Korea totally disarms.
Having such a meeting would mark the completion of a turnaround from Bush's previous hard-line stance toward North Korea.
Bush once branded Pyongyang as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and Saddam Hussein-ruled Iraq.
After North Korea tested a nuclear bomb in October, the US softened its policy in order to facilitate progress on the North's disarmament.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS