SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Wednesday said his country would not accept any peace treaty adopted between Washington and Pyongyang.

    While addressing an academic forum in Seoul on the future of Northeast Asia, Yu said the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s raising the issue of a peace treaty on the peninsula seems aimed at diverting international attention from its nuclear issues while buying time for nuclear weapons development.

    Yu made the remark as the DPRK's official media recently urged the United States to build a "peace mechanism" with Pyongyang to improve their relationship.

    The DPRK's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun said on Nov. 23 that only if the two sides turned their armistice agreement, which ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, to a peace treaty could a state of peace be achieved.

    Yu said Seoul opposed any discussion on a peace treaty only involves the United States and the DPRK while excludes South Korea and China.

    He also stressed that a peace treaty should only be adopted after the DPRK completes an irreversible and verifiable denuclearization.

    Meanwhile, South Korea's top diplomat warned that Pyongyang would use the peace treaty as the basis to demand that U.S. forces leave the Korean Peninsula.

    Washington and Pyongyang are scheduled to launch bilateral talks on Dec. 8.

    The two Koreas technically remain at war as the Korean War ended only with the armistice, not a peace treaty.