US officials today rejected the latest North Korean call to sign a peace treaty, saying that they are “not going to pay North Korea to come back to the six-party talks.”
North Korea abandoned the talks in early 2009 after the US pressed an additional round of condemnations against them through the UN Security Council. Shortly thereafter, North Korea successfully tested a nuclear weapon.
North Korean officials have repeatedly floated the proposal for a formal peace treaty to end the 60 years of war with the United States over the past month, but US officials have said they will never accept normal relations with North Korea unless they abandon all nuclear technology and make dramatic changes to their human rights treatment.
The Korean War began in June, 1950, and led to the deaths of hunders of thousands of soldiers and millions of civilians. Though the two sides signed a truce that has held for over half a century, they remain in a state of war and the United States continues to have tens of thousands of troops along the border with North Korea.
Despite State Department insistences that a return to the six-party talks come before any discussion of a peace treaty, it is unclear what the talks can possibly hope to accomplish when the participants remain in a state of defacto war, or what harm could possibly be done to them by closing the book formally on one of the bloodiest wars of the later half of the 20th century. The United States clearly has many nations with whom it does not desire “normal” relations, but in most cases they aren’t at war with them.
How come its "okay" for America to have nuclear weapons but not North Korea?
typical USA rethoric. how about worrying about the human rights treatment the Palestinians receive by the blessed hands of the children of david ? talk about being hypocritical. these Guys need to go broke. how many wars are they fighting now ?
USA troops, if they leave Korea, Japan /Phillopines would be next. Uncle Sam is worried–no more king of the far east castle. Empire busted for good!
Both the United States government and the North Korean government have a vested interest in maintaining hostile relations short of resumption of war. The policies of the United States government, (refusal to formally end the Korean War, economic sanctions, and troops stationed on the Korean peninsula) provide a pretext to the North Korean government for its failed economic policies and role those policies have had in making North Koreans some of the poorest people on Earth. The North Korean government provides the United States government with a pretext to maintain a large contingent of its troops in Southeast Asia. It is a classic win/win situation for both governments, but not the people of either country.
Apeace treaty, would be an exceptance of N. Korea as a independent natio Yanks are never going to do that.
This is what is called bargaining in bad faith. I can't speak for North korea, but the US does not want peace or a peace treaty. They are constantly thinking of reasons why they can't do it. You'd think somebody who wanted peace would rejoice at the offer of a peace treaty.
This is shaping up to be another 100 years war. But how can that be when war was never declared by the US? This was supposed to be a police action by the UN.
If what I read on Wikipedia is correct, and what I remember from my youth, the Korean War was a United Nations conflict. The United States called it a "police action" because there was no legitimate declaration of war by the US Congress. It just beats me that the United States can now reject a peace treaty. How utterly arrogant! The United Nations should overrule the United States, and just go ahead.