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The United States has not decided on exactly when a Korean peace treaty could be signed, with opinions varying on the timing as well as how closely it should be linked to North Korea's denuclearization, a former White House aide said Sunday.

South and North Korea are technically still in a state of war, having signed only an armistice at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. An eventual peace treaty ending the war is part of a six-nation package of incentives for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. The two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan are members of the six-party negotiations.

U.S. President George W. Bush, in talks with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in Sydney last week, reaffirmed that he looks forward to ending the Korean War. "That... will happen when Kim Jong-il verifiably gets rid of his weapons programs and his weapons," Bush had said, referring to North Korea's top leader.

Michael Green, former Asia director at the National Security Council, said he believes a peace treaty should be signed only when there is a reduction in both the nuclear and the conventional threats.

"The U.S. government never really decided the exact timing or the exact linkage to the denuclearization issue," he told Yonhap.

"But there are many different views on this timing within the U.S.

government."

The idea of a Korean peace mechanism was "implied" in the U.S.

proposal at the six-party talks in June 2004, after which the negotiations were suspended for over a year, Green said, and serious planning for a treaty began only when Condoleezza Rice became secretary of state in early 2005 for the second-term Bush administration.

Green, who now teaches at Georgetown University and chairs the Japan program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, argued that pressing the U.S. for public comments on the peace treaty would have negative effects.

When President Roh asked for a clearer U.S. stance on the issue during joint press availability after the Sydney talks, President Bush was pushed to say the treaty is possible only after denuclearization, Green pointed out.

This, he said, had the effect of "weakening those who wanted a looser connection to denuclearization."

"The timing of the peace treaty should never be negotiated on camera between leaders," said Green.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 (Yonhap)