S. Korean war veterans slam Pyongyang's proposed peace talks

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- International sanctions imposed on North Korea over
its nuclear threats should remain in place, South Korea's largest war veterans
group said Tuesday, dismissing the communist state's proposed peace talks as
deceptive.

North Korea on Monday proposed reopening peace talks to officially end the
1950-53 Korean War that was suspended in a cease-fire, adding the issue can be
discussed separately or within the multinational negotiations aimed at ending its
nuclear program.
Pyongyang, however, conditioned such talks upon the lifting of U.N. sanctions
imposed last year over its missile and nuclear tests, a demand Seoul and its
allies view as an attempt to undermine the six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
"The proposal is nothing but a strategic artifice to avoid international demands
for it to give up its nuclear developments and the U.N. sanctions," the Korea
Veterans Association (KVA) said in a press release.
The conservative association, which claims more than 8 million members, also
accused North Korea of attempting to elbow Seoul out of peace treaty talks, as it
was not an armistice signatory.
The 1953 cease-fire agreement was made between the United States, China and North
Korea, and left the two Koreas technically still at war.
"Once the cease-fire agreement is abolished, the U.S. forces in Korea, the sole
deterrent power against war on the Korean Peninsula, will no longer have legal
ground to remain in South Korea," the KVA added.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against the
North.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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