By Lee Min-hyung
North Korea has repeated a call for the South and the United States to walk on similiar paths to speed up the declaration of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the regime's foreign ministry said Tuesday.
"The first step to build trust between Pyongyang and Washington is to declare the end to the war, as this will help establish a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula," Kim Yong-guk, head of Pyongyang's Disarmament and Peace Institute of its foreign ministry, stated on the institute's homepage.
He urged the U.S. to sign the declaration as soon as possible, as this will make smooth progress in the ongoing denuclearization dialogue between both sides.
"If both sides have the political willingness, it is reasonable for them to end the technical state of war on the peninsula first," the regime said.
The demand came a day before a five-member South Korean special envoy made their way to Pyongyang Wednesday to discuss timelines and agenda for the upcoming inter-Korean summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Nothing has been confirmed about whether they have met with the regime's young leader. But Cheong Wa Dae said the special envoys arrived in Pyongyang, Wednesday morning, and had a discussion with Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the regime's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee.
South Korea is in a position to play a role as a mediator between the ongoing denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
The regime called for the need to declare an end to the war as a priority to take the next phased steps for its complete denuclearization. But Washington is stepping up its diplomatic pressure against Pyongyang to take more sincere and verifiable denuclearization steps before calling for the declaration.
The regime's foreign ministry went on denouncing Washington for continuing to take a hostile policy against Pyongyang, which the regime says is the backbone of the ongoing nuclear problems on the peninsula.
"Without establishing a firm peace system on the peninsula, the relations between Pyongyang and Washington can never be improved," the North's ranking official said.
With Washington and Pyongyang standing in a political stalemate, the role for President Moon is escalating.
Expectations are that Moon and Kim Jong-un will hold their third summit this year in Pyongyang later this month. Both sides are expected to narrow their differences about the ongoing peace talks on the peninsula. No specific timeline has been fixed for their meeting.
