U.S., South Korea fail to revise military pact

U.S., South Korea fail to revise military pact

SEOUL (Reuters): South Korea and the United States have failed to reach agreement in the latest round of talks aimed at revising a controversial military treaty governing U.S. forces in Korea.

But a senior foreign ministry official said he hoped for a breakthrough in altering the pact, which Seoul views as discriminatory, before the end of U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration next month.

"The two sides made some progress on most issues, including legal jurisdiction and environmental problems, but failed to resolve some thorny issues, because of difficulties in harmonizing Korea's legal system with military pacts in other countries," Song Min-soon, director-general of the ministry's North American department, told reporters on Monday.

"But we plan to reach a breakthrough before the Clinton administration ends," he said.

The talks to alter the treaty have been off-and-on since 1996. Song would not elaborate on which issues were blocking a final agreement on the military accord, which governs some 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.

But local reports said the main issues were Seoul's demand for greater jurisdiction over U.S. criminal suspects and for including a provision on environmental regulations in the revised agreement.

The current pact, last revised in 1991, allows U.S. service personnel accused of crimes to remain in American custody until they are convicted by a local court.

Seoul is demanding U.S. military criminal suspects be placed under its jurisdiction from the time they are arrested. The United States in August agreed to hand over custody of U.S. military personnel charged with crimes in South Korea to Korean authorities, but is seeking strong legal guarantees for the accused.

South Korea also wants to include environmental regulations in the revised treaty, after U.S. military authorities acknowledged dumping toxic material earlier this year into the Han River, the major source of drinking water for Seoul's 11 million people.

South Koreans, including President Kim Dae-jung, have been calling for the controversial military pact to be revised amid growing public sentiment against U.S. forces in Korea since an historic summit between North and South Korean leaders in June.

South Korea says the treaty, known as the Status of Forces Agreement, is discriminatory, compared to similar accords governing U.S. troops in Japan and elsewhere.

Activist groups last week held a rally to demand changes in the agreement in front of the government building where the talks were held.

South Korean officials, led by Song, held talks from November 29 with U.S. officials led by Frederick Smith, deputy assistant secretary of state for Asia-Pacific Affairs,

U.S.-led United Nations forces fought Chinese-backed North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended in an armed truce, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.