Pyongyang reiterates demand for treaty to end Korean War
By Kim Bo-eun
North Korea has ramped up calls to make a declaration ending the 1950-53 Korean War as denuclearization talks with the U.S. have been stalled for weeks.
“There is an order in achieving a goal,” the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, said.
“If the state of military confrontation between North Korea and the U.S. is ended through a declaration ending the war, a mood will be created for creating trust.”
Pyongyang wants the war to be declared over as a means to protect its regime from hostilities. It has been seeking an official end to the war as an early stage incentive in its denuclearization process.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho also referred to ending the war at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore last week.
“When the U.S. enables us to trust the country and get close up, we will be able to open up to the U.S. and show that through our actions,” he said.
At the June summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump, the leaders agreed for Washington to provide regime security for Pyongyang and for Pyongyang to achieve complete denuclearization.
The U.S. stance is that the war cannot be declared over unless North Korea takes concrete denuclearization steps, such as providing a list of its nuclear facilities.
North Korea has shown signs of dismantling facilities at its Tongchang-ri missile testing site in recent weeks, but the measures are yet to be verified.
Pyongyang returned the remains of U.S. veterans killed in the Korean War last week, fulfilling the first of the agreements reached at the June summit. However, the U.S. sees this as separate to the denuclearization process.