North Korea calls for peace talks on nuclear problem - FM

PYONGYANG, January 11 (Itar-Tass) - The signing of a peace treaty with
the United States will allow Pyongyang and Washington to get rid off
"hostility" in relations and promote the nuclear problem on the Korean
Peninsula, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement
circulated by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday.
The treaty, which would formally put an end to the 1950-1953 Korean
War, should replace the existing Agreement on Reconciliation. Pyongyang
says the signing of such document "would help build trusting relations"
between North Korea and the United States.
North Korea said a few weeks ago it was ready to end its year-long
boycott of six-country nuclear talks, but analysts said the North may try
to attach conditions to its return to the discussions among the two
Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
"If confidence is to be built between the DPRK (North Korea) and the
U.S., it is essential to conclude a peace treaty for terminating the state
of war, a root cause of the hostile relations, to begin with," the North's
KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
"The removal of the barrier of such discrimination and distrust as
sanctions may soon lead to the opening of the six-party talks."
North Korea, which was hit with fresh U.N. sanctions for a nuclear
test in May 2009, may be trying to free up stalled support for its broken
economy by returning to the sputtering disarmament-for-aid talks, analysts
have said.
U.S.-led U.N. forces fighting on behalf of South Korea signed the
ceasefire with North Korea and China that ended the Korean War. The two
Koreas are technically still at war and position more than 1 million
troops near their border.
-0-yur