North Korea has expressed to the U.S. that concluding a peace treaty is more important than normalizing its relationship with Washington, according to a Japanese media report.
Kyodo News said Pyongyang informed U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth during his visit there earlier this month that diplomatic ties can be broken at any time. The report added, citing various diplomatic sources, that Pyongyang is keener on abolishing the current armistice agreement and replacing it with a formal peace treaty and that the normalization of ties is not the regime's top priority.
North Korean officials also said that it could return to the six-party nuclear talks when it is "interested," maintaining a cautious approach to incentives such as economic support and the establishment of a U.S. liaison office in Pyongyang.
However, the sources explained that U.S. President Barack Obama did not mention such an office in the recent letter he wrote to Kim Jong-il, but instead he urged the North to give up its nuclear ambitions and return to the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, government officials in Seoul said Bosworth, after returning from Pyongyang, relayed that when the six-way talks resume, four countries -- the two Koreas, the U.S. and China -- will separately discuss peace on the Korean Peninsula, including the peace treaty.
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