North Korea wants all sanctions lifted for talks to resume

Jan 12, 2010, 23:24 GMT

New York - United Nations and other sanctions should be removed as a condition for North Korea to return to the six-party talks to settle the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, a North Korean diplomat said Tuesday.

North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Sin Son-ho said in an interview that sanctions are an 'expression of distrust between North Korea and the US.'

'We will return to the talks if the sanctions are lifted,' Sin said, one day after Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry issued a press statement to renew demands for negotiations leading to the signing of a peace treaty between Pyongyang and Washington.

The peace treaty would replace the ceasefire agreement that halted the 1950-53 Korean War. Without a peace treaty, the Korean peninsula has remained in a legal state of war.

Sin said that negotiations for a peace treaty could take place in parallel with the six-party talks, which since 2003 have involved China, Russia, the United States, Japan and North and South Korea. The talks deadlocked in 2008 over Pyongyang's refusal to dismantle its nuclear programme.

Sin said his government has rejected all sanctions and wants both the UN Security Council and Washington to remove their sanctions before the talks resume.

Told that Washington has not accepted Pyongyang's latest demand, Sin said: 'We will have to persuade the United States to sit down and discuss' the proposal.

Sin said a peace treaty should be signed this year.

Pyongyang's press release on Monday emphasized UN Security Council sanctions and made no mention of US bilateral sanctions against North Korea.

The 15-nation Security Council last year tightened its sanctions against North Korea, particularly in the area of nuclear technology and material after Pyongyang exploded a nuclear device in May 2009, the second one since 2006.

'It is our conclusion that it is necessary to pay primary attention to building confidence between the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and the US, the parties chiefly responsible for the nuclear issue, in order to bring back the process for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula on track,' the press release said.

'If confidence is to be built between the DPRK and the US, it is essential to conclude a peace treaty for terminating the state of war, a root cause of the hostile relations to begin with.'

North Korea has set a priority of improving ties with the US in 2010 in its New Year message.