S. Korea to brief U.S., others on possible peace deal
South Korea sent special envoys to the United States and other countries Friday to brief them on a new deal with North Korea calling for multinational talks to formally end the Korean War.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed Thursday to seek a meeting of parties to the ceasefire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, with the aim of signing a permanent peace treaty.
That would require the participation of the U.S. and China, who also fought in the conflict.
"Before us lies the task of establishing a peace regime on the Korean peninsula, which our people yearn for,'' Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters Friday. "In this regard, special government envoys were dispatched to the United States, Japan, China and Russia.''
U.S. President George W. Bush told Roh last month that he was willing to formally end the war, but insisted it could only happen after Pyongyang's total nuclear disarmament.
Pyongyang shut down its sole operating reactor at Yongbyon in July after the U.S. reversed its hard-line policy against the regime, the first concrete progress from years of talks that also have included China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
North Korea committed this week to going further than ever before in scaling back its nuclear ambitions by pledging at arms talks with the U.S. and other regional powers to disable its main nuclear facilities and declare all its programs by the end of the year.
In return, the U.S. offered to "begin the process'' of eventually removing Pyongyang from its blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism and lift other sanctions. On Friday, however, the North's official news agency claimed the U.S. firmly promised to lift the sanctions and remove North Korea from the list.
The inter-Korean summit accord calls for an expansion of economic co-operation, including establishing a new special economic zone on North Korea's west coast. The two nations also agreed to accelerate the development of an existing joint industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong and start a regular cargo rail service there.
Roh instructed the cabinet on Friday to draw up specific plans on implementing the accord, spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said.
Sensitive issue
Cheon also said Roh had raised the sensitive issue of former South Korean soldiers and civilians believed to be held in North Korea, but could not reach agreement with Kim because their positions were far apart.
According to South Korean government statistics, 545 soldiers captured during the 1950-53 Korean War are believed to be still alive in the North, along with 480 abductees taken by the communist nation — mostly fishermen whose boats have strayed across the border since the war's end.
The North claims there are no prisoners or abductees in the country, insisting people there have gone voluntarily.
The South's defence minister also said that Roh proposed ways of "peacefully using'' the four-kilometre-wide Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas but the North's leader rejected the offer, saying it's "too early'' to do so.