AUSTRALIA: President Bush offers North Korea peace treaty if it disarms

U.S. president George W. Bush says the United States would be willing to consider a formal peace treaty with North Korea if it gave up its nuclear weapons programme. Meanwhile, Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy on six-party talks, said nuclear experts from the United States, China and Russia will visit North Korea to conduct a survey of the country's nuclear facilities. U.S. president George W. Bush said on Friday (September 7) the United States would be willing to consider a formal peace treaty with North Korea if it gave up its nuclear weapons programme. "When the North Korea leader fully discloses and gets rid of its nuclear weapons programmes, then we can achieve a new security arrangement on the Korean peninsula, that we can have the peace we all long for," Bush said. Bush discussed this possibility in a meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. "We look forward to the day when we can end the Korean War. That will happen when Kim Jong-il verifiably gets rid of his nuclear weapons programmes and his weapons," Bush added. Prodded by Roh, Bush said this meant a permanent agreement that would replace the fraying truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. Meanwhile, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill confirmed a team will visit North Korea from September 11-15 to make a survey of nuclear facilities to be disabled. Hill, speaking to reporters in Sydney, said the team was going at Pyongyang's invitation to the three nuclear powers involved in six-party talks on North Korea's denuclearisation. "We think this is a very positive step, it's another example of the six parties working together," Hill said. Hill said it was important now for the parties to agree on methods of disabling the facilities which would make it difficult to bring the facilities back online. Hill, the top U.S. nuclear negotiator, announced in Geneva last week that North Korea has agreed to fully account for and disable its nuclear program by the end of this year. He said the September inspection was not likely to be the last. The next phase of the deal calls for a full declaration and disabling of all nuclear facilities in return for 950,000 tonnes of fuel oil, or the equivalent value in aid. "This has to do with nuclear weapons, ultimately, at the end of the day these are, we're talking about facilities that have been used for military purposes and I think we have to realise that Yongbyon was a facility that was used to reprocess spent fuel into plutonium for military purposes," Hill said. U.S President George W Bush asked the South Korean leader to urge his North Korean counterpart "to adhere to the agreement that he made with us". While the United States and South Korea are close allies, Bush and Roh have not always enjoyed an easy rapport. The Bush administration has often been frustrated by Roh unwillingness to follow Washington's tough line on North Korea. Bush said he was "optimistic" about progress to get North Korea to give up its weapons, but said there was still more work to be done. He insisted the dismantling must be verifiable. jrc/os

ITN Source | September 7, 2007

Tags:. .russia. .spent. .replace. .difficult. .account