By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter


Washington’s top nuclear negotiator has indicated the United States is prepared to sign a peace treaty with North Korea as part of a deal to resolve the current security standoff.

Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state, told a forum in Washington on Thursday that his government is open to discussions on a peace treaty to replace the armistice agreement that was signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. South and North Korea technically remain at war because of the absence of a formal peace treaty.

``What we signaled to the DPRK is our interest in pursuing it, if they wish to pursue it,’’ Hill said, using North Korea’s official name, the Democratic Republic of Korea.

Hill also said he discussed the possibility of the peace treaty with North Korean and Chinese delegates at the multilateral talks held earlier this month to resolve the dispute over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs.

North Korea has long demanded a peace pact with the U.S. and raised the issue again in July before the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks.

After the talks entered a three-week recess on Aug. 7, unnamed sources said the two Koreas, China and the U.S. had agreed to open discussions on the peace treaty issue.

But Hill’s comments this week are the clearest U.S. commitment yet to addressing North Korea’s longstanding demand.

International relations experts, however, predicted any peace treaty negotiations will be extremely complicated and likely drag on for years.

Yu Suk-ryul, professor emeritus at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, said it is unclear which countries would sign the treaty.

``In the past, North Korea has argued that South Korea should not be part in the peace treaty because it did not sign the armistice. But recently, it seems to have changed its attitude,’’ he said.

The 1953 armistice was signed by the U.S.-led United Nation’s Command, North Korea and China.

Yu also predicted resistance among older, conservative South Koreans who wouldn’t trust the North to honor the agreement. ``It’s not going to be easy and it’s going to take a long time.’’

Other North Korea watchers believed Pyongyang would demand the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea as part of a peace treaty. But Seoul and Washington would almost certainly reject this under the current security climate.

Hill appeared to present the peace treaty as a reward that would come some time after North Korea dismantled its nuclear programs.

He told the forum that despite significant differences of opinion, a framework for a denuclearization deal can be worked out when talks resume around Aug. 29.

The chief U.S. delegate to the nuclear talks said he hopes to come up with ``essentially two or three pages of principles’’ when the talks restart before pushing for a final deal in ``September, October at the very latest.’’

Hill said he has been talking with the other countries’ delegates by phone during the recess.

Ban Ki-moon, South Korean minister of foreign affairs and trade, is set to visit the U.S. for talks on the nuclear issue over the weekend.

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr