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Koreas seek peaceful end to standoff
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South and North Korea have agreed to peacefully resolve the international standoff over North Korea's alleged nuclear ambitions. The two sides worked through the night Thursday to hammer out a joint declaration after cabinet-level talks in Seoul. "South and North Korea sufficiently exchanged both sides' position on the nuclear issue and agreed to actively cooperate to resolve this issue peacefully," a joint declaration released after the talks said. But South Korea says it has not been able to draw any compromises from the North. "Although we have not been able to draw out a more progressive position on North Korea's nuclear issue, we have sufficiently delivered our and the international community's concern on the nuclear issue," the statement said. South Korea, which has been pushing diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the standoff, has been keen to press the North to prove its claims that it is not developing nuclear weapons and does not plan to do so. "We made it clear that inter-Korean relations could be hurt unless the nuclear issue is not resolved promptly," South Korean delegate Rhee Bong-jo said Wednesday. In reply, he said, the North Koreans had stressed their country had "no intention of making nuclear weapons." The South Korean side also said Friday it would work with Japan and the United States to resolve the issue peacefully and encourage North Korea to abide by its international obligations. Pyongyang -- which has demanded "face-to-face talks" with the United States -- has argued that the dispute over its nuclear program is solely with Washington and does not involve the South. South Korean delegation head Jeong Se-hyun late Thursday urged the North to make a clear statement on the nuclear impasse. "We must completely remove the security concerns which have been formed on the Korean Peninsula recently," The Associated Press reported Jeong as saying. North Korean delegation leader Kim Ryong Song agreed it was vital to "prevent the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula and preserve the safety of the nation." Both sides further agreed to work toward reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, which has been divided since 1945. Reconciliation projects have included cross-border rail and road links, as well as reunions of long-separated families. DenialThe ministerial talks are the highest-level regular contacts between North and South -- a process begun by the landmark June 2000 inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang. Tensions escalated in October when a visiting U.S. delegation said the North admitted having an active nuclear weapons program, in contravention of a 1994 agreement. Pyongyang denies the admission. North Korea says it was forced to restart its nuclear facilities, mothballed under the 1994 pact, to compensate for an energy shortfall after Washington halted shipments of oil in the wake of the supposed admission. North Korea is believed to have produced at least two nuclear weapons already and experts say its complex at Yongbyon could produce several more within months. Although the North says it has no such intention, it has also withdrawn from the global nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Meanwhile, United States Under-Secretary of State John Bolton is in Tokyo for the final leg of his Asian tour. Bolton has been pushing for the nuclear standoff to be taken to the United Nations Security Council. In Moscow, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage ruled out any formal treaty with North Korea, but says the U.S. is willing to document security guarantees for North Korea.
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