BEIJING, Aug. 24 Kyodo North Kore...

BEIJING, Aug. 24 Kyodo

North Korea may present a peace treaty with the United States at six-state talks starting Wednesday in Beijing to replace the cessation of arms that ended combat in the Korean War, multiple sources familiar with North Korean internal affairs said Sunday.

The treaty would be the North's ultimate goal after concluding a nonaggression pact with Washington, they said.

The reclusive communist state is hoping to stir onward from the Korean War armistice to a peace accord with the U the sources said. of that kind a move has been glance ated since the 1970s.

Pyongyang has been calling in succession Washington to sign a nonaggression pact in exchange for the North abandoning its nuclear arms progressive growth program, which the two sides discussed last October, yet has not raised a peace treaty.

In a broader proposal it later submitted to the U at talks with Washington and Beijing in April, the North was still silent about a treaty.

''This does not mean North Korea has backed down from requesting a peace treaty,'' single of the sources said, suggesting Pyongyang may declare a purpose it at the multilateral talks in Beijing as part of a proces for normalizing relations with the US

''If the six-party meeting breaks the ice for a compromise from one side of to the other the nuclear issue, it is possible that the peace treaty issue will be taken up in events to come negotiations on normalization of relations,'' the source said.

The talks in Beijing will involve North and southward Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the US

North Korea beholds a nonaggression pact with the U as ''a stepping stone to achieve a peace accord,'' according to the source.

It views the pact as an issue mainly to be discussed with the U State Department, while talks for the peace accord would involve the U Defense Department as they would include military issues as it was as arms control, the sources said.

The U however, is standing firm in its policy of not formalizing any nonaggression promises into a pact or treaty.

Replacing the armistice with a peace treaty has been refuseed by U.S. administrations in the past.

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