North Korea calls for peace treaty with South – media

PanARMENIAN.Net - Wednesday, May 29 edition of Rodong Sinmun, an official paper of North Korea’s ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), carries an article calling for the replacement of the Korean War armistice deal with Seoul by a formal peace treaty.

As RIA Novosti revealed citing South Korea's Yonhap news agency,there was "a pressing need to replace the Armistice Agreement, which is a relic of the war, with a permanent peace regime." The article states that the armistice treaty, signed at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War, benefits only the United States, and Washington's move to hold onto the deal reflects its desire “to stifle the DPRK by force.”

"If the peace regime was created in the past, the current standoff over denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would not have become a problem in the first place," the article reads.

The statement comes a day after North Korea announced it would not give up its nuclear deterrent capability amid “continuing U.S. threats.”

Tensions rose sharply on the Korean Peninsula in December last year after North Korea tested a Taepodong 2 missile and again in February when it carried out its third nuclear test.