The United States will consider peace treaty talks with North Korea if the Stalinist state returns to six-nation negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program, officials said Thursday.
"The approach with North Korea has always been the same, which is when North Korea comes back and participates in the six-party talks then we can proceed," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters aboard the presidential aircraft Air Force One.
Snow was responding to a report in The New York Times Thursday that the administration of President George W. Bush would consider opening a parallel track of negotiations on a peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.
The New York Times, quoting the president's aides, said Bush "is very likely to approve the new approach" hotly debated within the different factions within the administration.
"Nothing happens until North Korea goes back and participates in the six-party talks dealing with the possibility of developing nuclear weapons, and to talk about any further steps would be premature," Snow said.
The nuclear talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia and aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, have been stalled since November, when Washington imposed financial sanctions on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.
North Korea sought the removal of the sanctions as a precondition for returning to talks but the United States has refused to budge.
During the nuclear talks in September 2005, Pyongyang agreed in principle to abandon its nuclear weapons program in return for security, diplomatic and energy aid guarantees.
The September agreement also talked about negotiating a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate and separate forum, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
Asked whether there had been a tactical change in the way the Bush administration approached the Korean nuclear issue, McCormack declined to get into what he termed "internal deliberations about the administration."
"Again, we have repeated over and over again that they need to come back to the talks, they need to demonstrate that they have made the strategic decision to give up their nuclear programs," McCormack said.
He echoed Snow's statement, saying "you can't do anything about it until you actually get back to the talks.
"And the reason why we are not back at the talks is North Koreans have not come back to the table."
The United States nuclear standoff with North Korea ignited in 2002 when it accused the hardline communist state of running a secret uranium-enrichment program.
The North responded by throwing out UN International Atomic Energy Agency weapons inspectors and abandoning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top negotiator to the stalled six-party talks, will travel to China and South Korea on May 24-26 to discuss the possibility of jumpstarting the negotiations.
