Talks on Korean Peace Pact ‘Ongoing’

A first day of talks in Geneva that aim to transform a tense, 44-year truce on the Korean peninsula into a permanent peace adjourned with little outward sign of progress. “Ongoing” was all North Korea’s delegation leader would say when the day of talks ended. Diplomats from South Korea, the United States and China said nothing publicly. Peace negotiations could drag on for years, and just getting the North and South together in the same room to discuss a permanent peace was considered a breakthrough. Only an armistice, not a peace treaty, was signed to end the Korean War in 1953.