Seoul rejects N. Korea's demand for removal of sanctions

SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea dismissed North Korea's demand Monday for
the removal of U.N.-imposed sanctions before its return to six-nation nuclear
talks, saying neither the forum nor its participants have the authority to lift
the punishment.
The rejection came hours after North Korea's Foreign Ministry for a second time
in a week said it will return to the nuclear negotiations only after relevant
parties discuss replacing the armistice that ended the Korean War with a
permanent peace treaty and the sanctions are lifted.
"Our government's basic position, as we have repeatedly expressed, is that we can
start negotiating a peace treaty once the six-party talks are resumed and there
is progress in the denuclearization of North Korea," Kim Young-sun, spokesman for
Seoul's foreign ministry, told reporters.
"Also regarding the sanctions, they were imposed by a U.N. Security Council
resolution and the resolution states the Security Council can consider removing
them when there is progress in North Korea's denuclearization process," he added.
In a statement carried by its official Korean Central News Agency earlier Monday,
Pyongyang said it will not return to the nuclear talks while under sanctions.
"If the DPRK goes out for the six-party talks, remaining subjected to the
sanctions, such talks will not prove to be equal talks...The dignity of the DPRK
will never allow this to happen," the statement said, referring to North Korea by
its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The nuclear talks were last held in December 2008. The North said in April it had
permanently quit the negotiations, which also involve South Korea, the United
States, Japan, China and Russia.
However, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told China's Premier Wen Jiabao late
last year that his country may return to the multilateral negotiating table,
depending on the outcome of bilateral talks with the United States, which were
held in December.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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