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Talks depend on nuclear issue: Seoul

South Korea hopes to launch talks with the US, China and North Korea on a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War when progress becomes visible in disabling Pyongyang's nuclear facilities, Seoul's top diplomat said yesterday.

The remark by South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon means that the four-nation peace talks could start in a couple of months, as North Korea is supposed to disable its nuclear facilities by year's end.

Song also said that US troops, stationed in South Korea to deter threats from the North, should keep their presence here even after a peace treaty is signed.

"The government is in talks with directly related countries with the aim of opening negotiations on a peace regime at a time when progress is visible in North Korea's nuclear disablement," Song told a security forum in Seoul.

Talk of replacing the 1950-1953 Korean War armistice with a peace treaty gained significant momentum this month as the two Koreas agreed at a summit to seek to organize a summit of parties to the ceasefire to discuss the issue.

The Korean War armistice involved the US, China and North Korea. South Korea never signed it, as it believed a truce would leave the Korean peninsula divided. Seoul officials said, however, that there is no objection from the three countries to the South getting involved in a peace treaty.

Finalizing a peace treaty is expected to be a lengthy process, as it depends on North Korea's nuclear dismantlement.

"The South and the North will play the leading role in the Korean peninsula peace regime that will be established, as they are the ones who will have to uphold it," Song said. "The US and China will play roles that adequately reflect their status in forming the 1953 armistice."

The US has about 28,000 soldiers in South Korea to support the country's some 670,000 troops. North Korea has a 1.2 million-strong military, most of whom are stationed near the heavily fortified border that divides the peninsula.

Washington's ambassador to Tokyo sent US President George W. Bush a cable warning that portions of the pending nuclear deal with North Korea could harm relations with Japan, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

In addition, US Ambassador Thomas Schieffer complained that the deal with Pyongyang was being negotiated by top State Department officials with no knowledge or input from the embassy in Tokyo.

The deal could result in removing North Korea from Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism -- a move that could harm ties with Japan, Schieffer wrote.

Although ambassadors rarely send cables directly to the president, Schieffer -- a former ambassador to Australia -- is a long-time friend and former Bush business partner, the Post reported.
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