North Korea Again Calls for A Peace Treaty with the US
If there is one thing the Kim regime is persistent in pursuing is a peace treaty with the US to end the Korean War. The reason they are persistent is that a formal peace treaty would then call into question the continued existence of the US-ROK alliance. The North Koreans have tried for decades to drive a wedge between the ROK and the US and a peace treaty is one way they try and do this:
North Korea has called on the United States to sign a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War, without commenting on the summit talks between President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted the North’s Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement that Pyongyang and Washington could remove the source of war and put an end to the nuclear arms race by building trust.
The ministry reportedly said that one way to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula is for the North to bolster its defense capability based on nuclear weapons, while another way is for Washington to abandon its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and accept the North’s call for a peace treaty to replace the armistice agreement.
The statement came 20 hours after the South Korea-U.S. summit, in which Park and Obama called for the North’s denuclearization. [KBS World Radio]
“If there is one thing the Kim regime is persistent in pursuing is a peace treaty with the US to end the Korean War. The reason they are persistent is that a formal peace treaty would then call into question the continued existence of the US-ROK alliance. The North Koreans have tried for decades to drive a wedge between the ROK and the US and a peace treaty is one way they try and do this.”
North Korea knows there isn’t an ice cube’s chance in hell that the US would ever consider direct treaty talks. But it still pursues them because it’s a backhanded way of saying that South Korea is a puppet of the US, therefore there’s no need to pursue a peace treaty with South Korea. It is nothing more than an attempt to reinforce one of its long standing propaganda campaigns.
Seriously. Who would trust the DPRK not to cut off their own “Johnson” if they thought they could gain political points against the ROK? They’re like Iran; but with pork.
@Guitard, good point about the puppet regime propaganda angle, but I would not be surprised if in the future depending on conditions at the time if a US administration did take up the North Koreans on peace treaty talks.
Not that they will ever amount to anything … but I think a more likely scenario would be to try and get the Six-party talks re-started.
North Korea wants the US to sign a separate peace treaty. They need the UN to do that. There’s a long sad history there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Armistice_Agreement
Weakness invites attack.
@4: I agree that any peace treaty talk would begin with denuclearization talks. But what if North Korea promises to denuclearize in return for a peace treaty? I could see a future president looking to make a legacy for themselves possibly taking them up on that offer.
I think North Korea is closely watching the Iran deal. If a future president offered them something similar that allows them to keep the bombs they have and the ability to quickly reestablish their capacity to make nukes like the Iranians can they may take it. Such a deal would allow them to keep nukes for regime security, end sanctions, and possibly drive a wedge between the US and the ROK.
“But what if North Korea promises to denuclearize in return for a peace treaty?”
America has been down that road before with the deal the North Koreans made with the Clinton Administration. That deal … didn’t turn out so well though.
Simpsons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2L4344n_48
With Obama wearing ajumma pants on a girl’s bike vs. Putin bare-chested wrestling crocodiles, not so funny…