Seoul, January 11: North Korea says that a permanent peace pact must be drawn up to officially end the state of war with its neighbor to the South.
North and South Korea have been technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean conflict that ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.
The North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that the move could be a precondition for building the confidence needed for improving its ties with the US.
“If confidence is to be built between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US, it is essential to conclude a peace treaty for terminating the state of war, a root cause of the hostile relations,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.
Pyongyang also noted it would resume the six-party talks on its nuclear program with the lifting of UN sanctions against the Asian country.
After the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on the North, North Korea boycotted disarmament-for-aid talks with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US.
“The removal of the barrier of such discrimination and distrust as sanctions may soon lead to the opening of the six-party talks,” the statement said.
——Agencies