SPOKESMAN FOR DPRK FOREIGN MINISTRY URGES U.S. TO DISCUSS CONCLUSION OF PEACE TREATY

Pyongyang, December 2 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK foreign ministry issued the following statement on Dec. 2:

Of late outdated assertions about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and resumption of the six-party talks are being repeated in the vicinity of the DPRK.

As well known to the world, the DPRK clarified more than once its fair and aboveboard stand on replacing the Korean Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty for the purpose of defusing the danger of a war and tension on the peninsula and creating a peaceful climate.

The U.S. is still talking about the denuclearization and the resumption of the six-party talks everywhere it goes, insisting that it is necessary to make important progress in the efforts for the denuclearization before replacing the AA with the peace treaty.

Looking back upon the history, the DPRK gave precedence to the discussion of the issue of denuclearization in the bilateral and multilateral forms and comprehensively discussed the issue of the denuclearization and the matter of concluding the peace treaty simultaneously but nothing has been settled.

From a logical point of view, nobody can understand the U.S. assertion that peace can be achieved when the DPRK unilaterally disarm itself before others under the present situation where the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK persists and both sides are still technically at war. It is the truth clearly proved in practice that nothing can be settled as long as the issue of concluding the peace treaty is mixed with the matter of realizing the denuclearization.

If the peace treaty is concluded and the termination of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK, the root cause of all problems, is confirmed, all problems including the U.S. concern can be settled.

The DPRK and the U.S., the parties actually responsible for concluding the peace treaty, should sit at a negotiating table without any precondition to discuss the conclusion of the peace treaty, to begin with. The U.S. should stop employing sleight of hand and respond to the DPRK-U.S. dialogue for concluding the peace treaty at an early date.