hankyoreh

WASHINGTON - Baek Jong-chun, chief presidential secretary for security and foreign policy, said on December 3 (EST) that the South Korean government’s stance on officially declaring an end to the Korean War is to discuss the matter at an appropriate and necessary point in time, and after North Korea implements the disablement of its nuclear facilities and enters the dismantlement phase.

In separate talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and White House National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Baek discussed pending issues such as ROK-U.S. relations, the North Korean nuclear issue and normalization of North Korea-U.S. relations. Baek said that Rice holds the same position on these matters as she had during foreign ministers’ talks on November 7. At that time, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and Rice had agreed on discussing ways of garnering the support of top officials to speed up the denuclearization effort.

Seoul and Washington also discussed the matter of establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, according to Baek. “We exchanged opinions on ways for the two nations to cooperate on resolving the North’s nuclear issue and normalizing Pyongyang-Washington relations,” he said.

Regarding a recent visit to Seoul by Kim Yang-gon, the director of the United Front Department of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, Baek said, “I did not convey any concrete messages to the U.S.,” but said that the United States was informed of matters involving it during the course of its contact with North Korea.

“We share the view that since the launch of President Roh’s participatory government, Korea-U.S. relations have developed significantly,” Baek said, adding, “We discussed how to resolve outstanding issues, such as the ROK-U.S. FTA, imports of U.S. beef, and the extension of the Korean troop deployment in Iraq, smoothly and through close cooperation.”