N. Korea calls for early talks on peace treaty

(ATTN: ADDS details, foreign ministry reaction, background)
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Monday proposed holding talks on
replacing the Korean War armistice with a peace treaty, saying the agenda can be
discussed at an independent meeting of armistice signatories or even in the
six-party nuclear talks.
But the South Korean foreign ministry reacted skeptically, wary of the possiblity
that the North may be trying to use the peace treaty issue to undermine
multilateral negotiations on ending Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
North Korea made the proposal said in a Foreign Ministry statement, adding that
sanctions on it must be lifted before it returns to the six-nation talks aimed at
dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.
North Korea remains technically at war with the U.S. and South Korea after the
1950-53 Korean war ended in a truce. China, which fought on the North Korean
side, is also signatory to the truce.
"The conclusion of the peace treaty will help terminate the hostile relations
between the DPRK and the U.S. and positively promote the denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula at a rapid tempo," the North said, less than two weeks after it
called for an end to hostile relations with the United States in a New Year's
joint editorial. DPRK is the abbreviatin of the North's official name, the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"If confidence is to be built between the DPRK and the US, it is essential to
conclude a peace treaty for terminating the state of war, a root cause of the
hostile relations, to begin with," it said.
North Korea, which has signalled its willingness to return to six-nation talks on
ending its nuclear arms programs but without giving a date, said sanctions keep
it from returning to the talks.
"The removal of the barrier of such discrimination and distrust as sanctions may
soon help lead to the opening of the six-party talks" that include the U.S., the
two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia, it said. "Today the talks remain blocked by
the barrier of distrust called sanctions against the DPRK."
The Foreign Ministry statement comes after the North said in its Jan. 1 joint
newspaper editorial that it remains committed to a Korean Peninsula cleared of
nuclear arms through negotiations.
The statements come after a U.S. special envoy flew to Pyongyang last month
carrying a letter from President Barack Obama and calling on the North to return
to the six-nation talks.
An official at the foreign ministry here did not welcome the statement, saying
"we cannot say it is all good news because what they proposed is somewhat
different from our position on such talks," an official at South Korea's foreign
ministry said.
Seoul's foreign minister Yu Myung-hwan noted in a recent interview with Yonhap
News Agency that Pyongyang may try to bring the issue into the six-party dialogue
in an attempt to delay the negotiations on ending its nuclear ambitions.
"We have to consider the proposal in greater depth before deciding on how to
perceive it, but the format for talks on a peace treaty that was agreed to by the
six parties of the nuclear negotiations was for a forum separate from the
six-party talks," the ministry official said, asking not to be identified.
The official noted that North Korea may have mentioned holding the peace talks in
a separate forum so as to avoid criticism from other participants of the
six-party talks for trying to breach previous agreements, if not to manipulate
the nuclear negotiations themselves.
(END)