North Korea continued to call on South Korea and the US to declare an end to the Korean War through its state-run media on Tuesday as it started to dismantle a key missile-engine test site.

The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in an article Wednesday that it is a historical task to terminate the abnormal cease-fire and build a durable peacekeeping mechanism on the peninsula.
 

“As the issue of the declaration of the end of the war is one of the agreements stipulated in the historic Panmunjom Declaration, North Korea and South Korea have a duty to implement it and the US enthusiastically supported it,” it said.

The newspaper also said the US has the “responsibility and duty” to declare an end to the war, blasting it for viewing the declaration as if granting a “gift.”

It urged South Korea’s active role in bringing a formal end to the war.

“Recently, an obstacle has emerged in the process of resolving problems regarding the declaration of the end of the war,” the paper said, adding the South Korean government should not sit idle on the issue.

On the same day, the North’s propaganda website Meari also posted an article claiming that Washington’s attitude, which it said avoids declaring an end to the Korean War, could ruin momentum.

“There are growing voices in South Korea and neighboring countries criticizing the US regarding the issue of declaring an end to the war,” it said. 

Meanwhile, Pyongyang started taking down a processing building and a rocket engine test stand that had been used to test intercontinental ballistic missiles. Analysts say North Korea could beef up its demand for declaring an end to the war, which the North sees as one of the measures to guarantee its regime security, in return for dismantling the missile engine testing site.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)