South Korea calls for nuke-free peninsula

SEOUL, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The only way to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula is to first keep it free of nuclear weapons, a South Korean negotiator says.

Huh Chul, a director general at Seoul's Foreign Ministry, said Sunday he got no disagreements from North Korea when he made that statement during last week's mini-six-party meeting in Moscow to discuss efforts to persuade the North to give up its nuclear program, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

Neither Pyongyang, Russia nor China voiced any objections to Huh's call for nuclear-free Korean peninsula as a pre-condition for peace, he said.

"The North also refrained from making overt criticism of Seoul's current North Korean policies, which could have made the talks difficult," said Huh, who heads the foreign ministry's Korea Peninsula Peace regime office, Yonhap reported.

Huh told the news agency he was cautiously optimistic that if any progress is made at committee-level discussions, it may provide new momentum to the stalled main six-party forum, which have been inactive since late last year when North Korea's objected to a U.S.-proposed verification regime on its past nuclear activities.