South Korean President Moon Jae-in is urging an official end to the 70-year Korean War, a move he hopes will foster renewed progress toward peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Moon made the proposal during a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, which opened on Tuesday. While the direct fighting between the two Koreas ended in 1953 with an armistice agreement, North and South Korea have never formally ended the war, which began in 1950.
“The war must end, completely and for good,” Moon said in his address. “I hope that the U.N. and the international community provide support so that we can advance into an era of reconciliation and prosperity.”
Denuclearization talks among the United States, North Korea, and South Korea have fizzled out in recent months despite a landmark meeting of President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the border between North and South Korea in June 2019. The hermit nation has continued to provoke tensions in the region by repeatedly test-firing missiles off its coast.
In June, on the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, North Korea released a bellicose statement saying that it has no choice but to “counter nuclear with nuclear” because of the U.S. arsenal. Over the summer, North Korea also bombed an inter-Korean liaison office and threatened to send troops into demilitarized areas along the border.
On Tuesday, Moon said that he hoped a declaration marking the end of the Korean War would help move forward diplomatic initiatives in the region.
“The end-of-war declaration will, indeed, open the door to complete denuclearization and a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” Moon told the U.N.
