The White House said on Thursday that a peace treaty formally ending the Korean war and the normalisation of US-North Korean ties would depend on the Stalinist regime abiding by an agreement that calls for dismantling its nuclear weapons program.
"There is a process for this," said national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe, pointing to the six-country talks grouping the United States, Japan, China, North and South Korea, and Russia. Taking North Korea off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, a peace treaty, normalising US-North Korea ties is "all conditioned on action-for-action" progress on the denuclearisation deal, he said.
"Again, it's a process, there are certain actions that we expect by the end of the year, such as the disablement of (the) Yongbyon (nuclear complex), and their actions will be met with actions on our end," said Johndroe.
His comments came after North and South Korean leaders called Thursday for a nuclear-free peninsula and a permanent peace pact to end the world's last Cold War divide as they wrapped up a rare summit. The historic foes agreed to step up trade, travel and political exchanges, including starting a freight train between the impoverished communist North and prosperous South and flights for the growing number of South Korean tourists.