North Korea proposes high level nuke talks with U.S.

PanARMENIAN.Net - North Korea proposed high-level talks with the United States on Sunday, June 16 days after its planned talks with South Korea broke down over the level of their chief delegates, Yonhap news agency said.

"(We) propose high-level talks between the North Korean and U.S. governments to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and establish regional peace and security," a spokesman of the North's powerful National Defense Commission said in an "important statement" carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The talks' agenda could include the issue of easing military tensions on the peninsula, replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a permanent peace treaty, and the U.S. vision for a world free of nuclear weapons, among other issues of mutual interest, the spokesman said.

The move comes five days after South and North Korea canceled their high-level talks that were planned for Wednesday and Thursday, citing differences over the rank of chief delegates to represent each side. Had they been held, the talks would have been the first high-level talks between the Koreas in six years.

The dispute was seen as underlining the big gulf that divides the two Koreas, which remain in a state of conflict after failing to sign a peace treaty at the end of the Korean War.