A pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan predicts that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may meet U.S. President George W. Bush in the near future to discuss peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The Choson Sinbo, published by the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, carried a special report on the inter-Korean summit last week.

The report noted that, for the first time, the two leaders discussed a three- or four-way summit involving the two Koreas, the U.S. and China. The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty, which was signed by the U.S.-led U.N. Command, China and North Korea.

The daily claimed that, considering the progress in the six-party nuclear talks, a formal declaration to end the Korean War was not far ahead and that the time for Kim Jong-il and Bush to sit face-to-face was approaching.