South Korea considering peace treaty with North

South Korea may seek to replace its uneasy truce with North Korea with a formal peace treaty, according to officials in Seoul, as the country’s president, Moon Jae-in, prepares to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next week.

The officials added, however, that negotiating a peace treaty to replace the armistice agreed by the two Koreas at the end of their 1950-53 war would be contingent on Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

Chung Eui-yong, head of South Korea’s presidential national security office, said Seoul and Washington were exploring several ways in which to reward the North for agreeing to its complete and verifiable denuclearisation.

Among the options are peace treaties with both South Korea and the US.

“We are discussing how we could remove the security concerns held by North Korea,” Chung was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

“We have also held in-depth discussions on how we could guarantee the North’s bright future should the North make the right decision.”

On Tuesday, the US president Donald Trump, gave his blessing to talks aimed at formally ending the Korean war.

“People don’t realize the Korean War has not ended. It’s going on right now. And they are discussing an end to the war,” he said. “Subject to a deal they have my blessing and they do have my blessing to discuss that.”

Raising expectations for a major breakthrough at a series of upcoming summits, Trump said “a great chance to solve a world problem” was within reach on the Korean peninsula.

The countries signed an armistice in 1953. Kim and Moon will meet for the first time on 27 April.

There has been no immediate response from North Korea to the suggestion that a peace treaty may be in the offing, but Kim reportedly told Chung in Pyongyang in early March that the regime would consider giving up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees from South Korea and the US.