SOUTH KOREA: The US and South Korean presidents yesterday agreed that a dedicated forum should be established to discuss replacing the armistice that ended the Korean war with a proper peace treaty, a move that could significantly reduce tensions on the peninsula.
The forum should be separate from the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, George Bush and Roh Moo-hyun said after talks in the ancient South Korean town of Kyongju, ahead of today's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders' meeting.
North Korea remains technically at war with South Korea and the US because only a ceasefire was agreed when the Korean war ended in 1953, and Pyongyang has repeatedly called for a proper peace treaty to be signed.
North Korea would almost certainly use such a treaty to demand the withdrawal of the 30,000 US troops in South Korea.
"The two leaders agreed that reducing the military threat on the Korean peninsula and moving from the current armistice mechanism to a peace mechanism would contribute to full reconciliation and peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula," the presidents said in a joint statement.
While the English-language version said "mechanism," the Korean statement referred to a "treaty".
A joint statement released in September by the six parties discussing North Korea's nuclear disarmament said the governments should negotiate "a permanent peace regime on the Korean peninsula at an appropriate separate forum" but this is the first top-level endorsement of the idea.
The latest round of talks is shaping up to be thorny as the parties - China, Japan, Russia, the US and the two Koreas - try to implement the North's agreement to abandon its weapons programmes in return for economic rewards.
Mr Roh yesterday reiterated his commitment to a second summit meeting with Pyongyang, describing relations as "probably the most stable situation between the two Koreas that you have ever seen".
Mr Bush, speaking after his fifth meeting with Mr Roh, stressed that North Korea had "verifiably" to give up its nuclear weapons before being allowed a light water reactor, one of the energy-impoverished North's key demands.
He said further talks should be held as soon as possible. - (Financial Times service)