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By Yi Whan-woo
North Korea has called on the United States to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War in line with an agreement between their leaders at their Singapore summit in June.
"There is no reason to ignore a declaration to end the war. It is a preliminary and essential process to pave the ground for detente and permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula," Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, said on Aug. 17.
The demand came amid U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's possible fourth visit to Pyongyang to discuss how the two countries can speed up the North's nuclear disarmament.
North Korea has been accusing the U.S. of dragging its feet in building trust on the path to denuclearization.
Rodong Sinmun also claimed that South Korean citizens and Korean people living in the U.S. had held rallies calling for a declaration to end the war.
"The U.S. should implement phased and simultaneous measures, like the end-of-war declaration, to build mutual trust and make a breakthrough in the security of the world," said the paper.
In a separate commentary, Pyongyang's propaganda website Meari claimed that talking about peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula without a declaration of the end of the Korean War would be meaningless.
"As long as the armistice remains intact, even a small accidental event could immediately escalate into a crisis," the website said.
"If so, the North's relations with the South and the U.S. could revert to the past phase of confrontation."
In return for denuclearization, North Korea has called for an end to the Korean War, a guarantee of the North Korean regime's survival so it can pursue economic development.
