- (AFP) -- China and North Korea agreed that the nuclear
stand-off must be solved through dialogue as South Korea and the United
States prepared to launch major military excercises.
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- "The two sides both believe that the nuclear issue
and crisis on the Korean peninsula must be solved through dialogue,"
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhang Qiyue told a regular briefing
on Tuesday.
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- North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, on his way
to a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Kuala Lumpur, paid a surprise
visit to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss the four-month
standoff.
-
- "The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views,"
Zhang said, but declined to be more specific.
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- North Korea has said repeatedly that it wants to solve
the nuclear issue through dialogue, although it insists on bilateral talks
with the United States. It has rejected taking part in a multilateral setting.
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- The call for face-to-face talks between Pyongyang and
Washington has been rejected by the US government, which wants North Korea
to dismantle its nuclear program first.
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- The discussions between Paek and Wang coincided with
Pyongyang threatening to pull out of the armistice that ended the Korean
War, which was widely seen as a response to the announcement Monday of
US-South Korea war games scheduled for next month.
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- The statement from North Korea's army accused the United
States of repeated violations of the agreement.
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- "If the US side continues violating and misusing
the armistice agreement as it pleases, there will be no need for the DPRK
(North Korea) to remain bound to the AA (armistice agreement) uncomfortably,"
said the statement attributed to a spokesman for the Korean People's Army.
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- "The future development will entirely depend on
the attitude of the US side," the spokesman said, in a statement carried
by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
-
- The US military declined to comment on the statement,
but according to a senior South Korean military official, it contained
nothing new.
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- "North Korea said in 1994 they were no longer bound
by the Armistice Agreement," the official said.
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- Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang refused to
say if Paek and Wang had discussed the armistice, but noted that it was
reassuring that it was only a North Korean threat to pull out, and not
a statement of fact.
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- "... if I'm not mistaken, there are some officials
from the DPRK who said, I quote, "if some parties take further measures,
the DPRK may consider to withdraw from the armistice'," she said.
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- China, which sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to
fight and die in the 1950-53 war on the Korean peninsula, is one of the
signatories to the armistice.
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- The agreement, signed between the armies of the United
Nations and its Korean War enemies, the Chinese and North Korean armies,
is a ceasefire accord between combattants and not a treaty between nations.
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- North Korea has long denounced it and has sought a peace
treaty with the United States. Since the nuclear crisis erupted in October,
Pyongyang has been asking for a non-aggression pact with Washington.
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- US officials meanwhile said Tuesday thousands of US troops
will take part in a major drill this week near the heavily fortified inter-Korean
border to test their preparedness for an act of aggression by North Korea.
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- US authorities said the exercise would take place from
Friday and last until March 10 at a strategic point near the demilitarized
zone which has divided the Korean peninsula since the Korean War.
-
- "Nearly one-third of 15,000 soldiers assigned to
the US Army's Second Infantry Division will be mobilized for the drill,"
a US military spokesman told AFP.
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- Some 37,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea under
a mutual defense pact.
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