Koreas agree to revive peace talks
Meetings could pave way to peace treaty after more than 50 years of tensions.
Published On 15 Feb 2007
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“We had a consensus that South-North relations should be restored promptly.” Lee Kwan-se, South Korean delegate |
The decision to resume talks follows a meeting by officials from both sides in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, just two days after a landmark six-nation agreement was signed in Beijing on North’s nuclear programme.
According to South Korean news reports, Maeng Kyong Il, North Korea’s chief delegate to the meeting said he hoped for a new start in relations between the two countries.
“There should not be repeated vicious cycles of North-South relations frequently breaking down,” he was quoted as saying.
Peace treaty
Both nations have remained technically at war for 54 years since the Korean War in 1953 without a formal peace treaty.
The Beijing agreement signed on Tuesday included a clause urging both North and South Korea to work towards a treaty replacing the current uneasy ceasefire.
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| Officials from both Koreas say they are hoping end decades of tensions on the peninsula [AP] |
Lee Kwan-se, a South Korean delegate, said the two sides jad agreed that the ministerial-level talks should resume “as early as possible”.
“We had a consensus that South-North relations should be restored promptly.”
The South Korean and US presidents have also acknowledged that “they were now at a starting point to kick-start the process of resolving the North Korea nuclear issue”.
Roh Moo-hyun said he spoke to George Bush and both “stressed that each country should sincerely implement” the nuclear deal, according to a statement from Roh’s office on Thursday.
Source: News Agencies