Moon urges US move towards formally ending Korean War
“North Korea is
promising to take steps toward dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear complex if the US takes corresponding
measures”
AFP
SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in called yesterday on the United States to move towards the nuclear-armed Norths demands for a declaration the Korean War is over, as the allies pursue increasingly different approaches towards Pyongyang, reports AFP.
Washington has shied away from a formal announcement that the 1950-53 conflict, when hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, has ended, saying that the North must first take more steps towards giving up its atomic arsenal.
For its part Pyongyangwhich long insisted it needed nuclear weapons to defend itself against a possible US invasionhas pledged only to work towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, demanding simultaneous moves by Washington in return, with a peace declaration its first priority.
The North has stopped all nuclear and missile tests, dismantled its only nuclear test site and is now dismantling its missile engine test facilities, and is promising to take steps toward dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear complex if the US takes corresponding measures, Moon told the BBC.
Declaring the end of the war is a political declaration that the US would end decades of hostile relations with the North, he said.
Moving towards such a process is the corresponding measure the US should take, he added, according to a transcript released by the presidential Blue House.
The comments, made ahead of Moons departure Saturday for a tour of European capitals, emphasise the increasing differences between Seoul and Washington, which has 28,500 troops stationed in the South to defend it from its neighbour.
Experts say the offers made by the North will have little impact on its military capabilities, and Pyongyang itself has said it has no further need to test its weapons.
But Moon said Kim understood denuclearisation meant more than closing testing facilities.
It also included dismantling facilities that produce nuclear weapons and develop missiles, he said, and it includes everything else, such as getting rid of existing nuclear weapons and nuclear materials.
Pyongyang has made no such declaration in public, and missiles were included in the designs of propaganda posters on display in the capital last month, when it celebrated the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, as the country is officially known.
The dovish Moon has long favoured engagement with the North, which is subject to multiple UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, and visited Pyongyang last month for his third meeting with leader Kim Jong Un.
Moon has dangled large investment and joint cross-border projects as incentives for steps towards denuclearisation, with Seoul opening a joint liaison office in the North Korean border city of Kaesong last month and promising to pursue cross-border road and rail projects.
Earlier this week Moons foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha told parliament Seoul was reviewing its own sanctions against the North. She later backtracked, saying she had misspoken, and her ministry said no active review was in place.
In response to Kangs remarks, Trump said: They wont do it without our approval. They do nothing without our approval.
The United States, which spearheaded global efforts to squeeze the North Korean economy last year, has been adamant that the sanctions remain in place until Pyongyangs final, fully verified denuclearisation.
