Peace Treaty to Include Koreas, China, and U.S.

Baek Jong-cheon, chief presidential secretary for unification, foreign and security policy, said yesterday that multilateral talks for discussing a peace treaty ending the Korean War will involve the two Koreas, the U.S. and China, rather than excluding China as was considered earlier.

Baek said this at a lunch meeting with editors and editors-in-chief of the media. Cheon Ho-seon, presidential spokesperson, said in a regular briefing, “Four-party talks are reasonable, if China agrees.” He commented in regard to the NLL that, “The issue will be brought up in future negotiations, but we will maintain our position that the NLL will not be changed until the end of the talks.”

He said, “The U.S. is considering providing a large amount of humanitarian food aid. In this regard, I believe the two will meet soon.” As long as conditions for delivering aid to those who are needy are transparent, the U.S. is reportedly considering resuming humanitarian aid to the North.

One diplomatic source in Washington said, “When non-governmental relief organization Samaritan’s Purse was giving medicines (antibiotics) to North Korean flood victims, the U.S. government helped a little too. Humanitarian aid for the North is in line with the changed mood regarding North Korea’s nuclear programs.” Back then, the U.S. aid was reported to be around $50,000 (around 48 million won).

Even after the North Korean nuclear crisis broke out in 2002, the U.S. continued to provide rice under the principle, “Humanitarian aid will not stop.” However, after 2005, aid was effectively cut off after the U.S. cited the lack of transparency in food aid distribution.

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