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US rejects Chinese offer of peace treaty talks with N. Korea

February 18, 2016
Barack Obama, Xi Jinping...US President Barack Obama, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, both adjust their suit coats during the start of their bilateral meeting at the US Ambassador's Residence in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday, March 24, 2014. Obama is in the Netherlands for the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, which will form the backdrop for an emergency meeting of Group of Seven leaders on Russia's annexation of Crimea. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Barack Obama, Xi Jinping…US President Barack Obama, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, both adjust their suit coats during the start of their bilateral meeting at the US Ambassador’s Residence in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday, March 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) — The United States said Thursday that denuclearization remains its top priority when it comes to North Korea, rejecting a Chinese proposal to begin peace treaty negotiations with Pyongyang in tandem with denuclearization talks.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the offer earlier this week after talks in Beijing with his Australian counterpart. A peace treaty with the United States, which would formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, is one of the North’s long-running demands.

“Denuclearization remains our top priority. We remain in close contact with the other five-party partners on our shared goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner,” State Department spokeswoman Katina Adams said.

In response to Pyongyang’s repeated demand for a peace treaty, the U.S. has said the demand is a nonstarter as long as the North pursues nuclear ambitions. U.S. officials have stressed that the communist regime has got the order wrong and should first focus on negotiations to end its nuclear program.