Vershbow: Peace Treaty Means Legal and Political End to Korean War

On October 25, the U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow, regarding the time and method of the end-war declaration by three or four leaders on which Cheong Wa Dae and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade are disagreeing with each other, said, “The peace treaty means the end of the Korean War in a legal and political sense.”

This means that the end-war declaration and the peace treaty are inseparable, and his stance contradicts Chief Presidential Secretary for Security Policy Baek Jong-cheon’s words on October 24 that, “The end-war declaration by three or four leaders mentioned in the inter-Korean summit declaration means a political and symbolical declaration by the related nations to start peace negotiations.”

“Even when North Korea completes its disablement, the most difficult part remains, which is the complete elimination of the North’s nuclear programs,” said Ambassador Vershbow to journalists he met at the University of Seoul after giving a lecture on the subject entitled, “South Korea, the U.S., and the Korean Peninsula” on Thursday. “Only after complete denuclearization can the normalization of relationship and a peace treaty be considered,” he said.

Concerning the time for opening negotiations for a peace regime, he suggested that it is difficult within this year in the actual sense, saying, “We hope to open peace negotiations after North Korea completes its disablement, makes a complete declaration, and shows that it is on the path to denuclearization.”

On the possibility of holding a bilateral or multilateral summit that includes North Korea and the U.S., Ambassador Vershbow said, “That’s for the White House to decide. The general idea of the U.S. is that the highest-rank meeting should be held at the end of the denuclearization process when agreed on by the 4-party or 6-party talks, not in the early stage.”

Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, after the celebration of UN Day on October 24, said, “The schedule and method of the end-war declaration should be negotiated by related nations. The baseline is that the starting point is the progress of substantial denuclearization results.”

triplets@donga.com