Negotiations on a peace treaty to formally end the state of war on the Korean Peninsula are likely only after substantial progress is made on ending North Korea’s nuclear program, a senior South Korean official said Thursday.
The New York Times reported Thursday that top advisers to President Bush have recommended a broad new approach in dealing with the communist state that would include beginning negotiations on a peace treaty on a parallel track with disarmament talks.
A September agreement reached at the six-party talks with North Korea was based on a broad assumption that peace negotiations would start when substantial progress was made on ending the North’s nuclear program, the official said.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since the conflict ended in a 1953 cease-fire.
