A U.S. expert on North Korea has claimed that Pyongyang demanded Seoul be excluded from negotiations for a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War.
 
Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, made the disclosure in an interview with the Tokyo Shimbun.
 
The Japanese newspaper quoted Klingner as saying that a North Korean official made the demand in an unofficial meeting between U.S. researchers and three North Korean officials in Stockholm early last month, asking the U.S. to first recognize the North as a nuke state and then talk about a peace treaty or war.
 
Klingner quoted the North Korean official as saying that South Korea should be excluded from the talks.  
 
The Tokyo Shimbun said the North Korean official’s remarks indicate that Pyongyang only considers the U.S. as a dialogue partner in a bid to earn the security of the regime, exposing a huge gap with the Moon Jae-in administration's hopes to play a leading role in Korean Peninsula-related issues.

[Photo : ]