SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The U.S. Embassy in Seoul denied Friday that its ambassador suggested Washington could later this year formally end the war with North Korea.
A South Korean legislator, Rep. Kim Jong-yull, claimed earlier that U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow told him and other lawmakers in a Wednesday meeting that the U.S. was ready to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War by an Asia-Pacific summit in September and forge diplomatic relations next year if Pyongyang dismantles its nuclear program.
The U.S. Embassy said Vershbow was misquoted.
"The U.S. position remains that the negotiation of a permanent peace regime and negotiations on normalization of relations ... should go hand-in-hand with negotiations on denuclearization," the embassy said in a statement.
"Completion of negotiations on a peace regime and full normalization of diplomatic relations can only be contemplated in the context of complete denuclearization by" the North, it said.
The U.S. fought alongside South Korea against the invading communist troops from the North during the war. The conflict ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula still technically at war. The U.S., as leader of the U.N. forces, signed the truce with North Korea and China.
North Korea missed an April deadline to shut down its nuclear reactor under a February agreement with the U.S. and four other neighbors because of a separate bank dispute with Washington.
Pyongyang says it is still committed to the deal, but it is unclear when it would carry out its nuclear obligations.
