-Caveat Lector-
"North Korea has continued to demand
that the US withdraw its troops from South Korea."
U.S., China, Koreas Complete Talks
By GEIR MOULSON
.c The Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) -- Talks to reduce tensions between North and South Korea wrapped
up Tuesday with little sign of progress toward achieving a permanent peace on
the divided peninsula.
A statement read by U.S. envoy Charles Kartman said that ``serious
differences in positions exist'' after five rounds of peace talks.
Kartman, who led the talks, said the parties held ``useful and productive
discussions'' and would meet again in August. The first round of talks
between the two Koreas, the United States and China began in December 1997.
The four former combatants in the Korean War have said it is likely to take
years to write a peace treaty to replace the temporary armistice that ended
the 1950-53 conflict.
North Korea has continued to insist that the talks include its demand that
the United States withdraw its 37,000 troops from South Korea -- a
requirement rejected by the South and the United States.
``We will in the future, too, hold to our position on that,'' said North
Korean deputy foreign minister Kim Gye Gwan.
If the other parties declined to discuss the issue, ``we wouldn't have any
interest in that kind of talks,'' he insisted.
A senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
countered that the North's 1.1 million-strong army is a major source of
military tension on the Korean peninsula.
Four previous rounds of talks were taken up by discussions on how to proceed.
A dispute that had hung over the talks was resolved last month when North
Korea agreed to give the United States access to a site suspected of being an
underground nuclear facility.
The United States reportedly agreed to provide the famine-stricken country
with 600,000 tons of food.
The first inspection is to take place in May but Kim declined to specify the
date. The U.S. official would say only that the exact timing will be
announced ``very shortly.''
``We are at a point where agreements are at least feasible,'' the U.S.
official said. But ``I don't think that from where we sit right now we can
see clearly to the end.''
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