Korean Peace Tied To North's Nukes

Negotiations on a peace treaty to formally end the state of war on the Korean Peninsula are likely only after substantial progress is made on ending North Korea's nuclear program, a senior South Korean official said Thursday.

The New York Times reported Thursday that top advisers to President Bush have recommended a broad new approach in dealing with the communist state that would include beginning negotiations on a peace treaty on a parallel track with disarmament talks.

In response to this report, a senior State Department official tells CBS News' Charlie Wolfson that "talking about everything, including a peace treaty, is possible, but under the six party umbrella."

A September agreement reached at six-party nuclear talks with the North was based on a broad assumption that peace negotiations would start when substantial progress was made on ending the North's nuclear program, the South Korean official said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The official indicated such negotiations wouldn't start any time soon.

The North has long demanded a peace treaty with the United States to replace a cease-fire negotiated with the U.S.-led United Nations command, which fought to defend South Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War, and China, which supported the North.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the conflict ended in a cease-fire, not a formal treaty.

The New York Times report said Mr. Bush is likely to approve the new approach, but only if the North returns to the nuclear talks that have been stalled since November.

"First, the North Koreans have to come back to the table and then, they also have to demonstrate that they have made the strategic decision to get rid of their nuclear weapons programs," a senior State Department official tells CBS News.

The U.S. Embassy in Seoul had no comment on the report.

"It would be a big enough carrot for North Korea," said Baek Seung-joo, a North Korea expert at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. "By promising them a security guarantee, the U.S. is giving North Koreans a cause to return to the talks."

The September agreement was the first solid achievement since the six-party talks, which include the two Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, began in August 2003.

Song Min-soon, South Korea's presidential security adviser and former chief nuclear negotiator, said Thursday the agreement provided a foundation for peace negotiations and "when and how this will be done is an issue to be discussed in the future."

Pyongyang has refused to return to talks until Washington lifts financial restrictions against the communist nation for alleged illegal activity, including counterfeiting. The United States says the issues are unrelated and that the North should return without conditions.