North Korea is open to officially ending the Korean War if the South ends its “hostile policies,” according to the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim Yo-jong made her unexpected statement in response to a renewed call from the South to officially end the long conflict, the BBC reported Friday.
The Korean war, which split the peninsula into two, unofficially ended in 1953 with an armistice and not a peace treaty. The two countries have technically been at war ever since, locked in an often contentious relationship.
Last week, South Korean president Moon Jae-in called for the two Koreas and their allies – the US which backs the South, and China, which supports the North – to declare a formal end to the conflict.
The idea was first derided as “premature” by a top North Korean minister.
But in a surprise statement released Friday, Kim Jo-yong said the idea was “admirable”.
But she said that the North would only discuss the proposal if the South stopped what she called “hostile policies” towards them.
“What needs to be dropped is the double-dealing attitudes, illogical prejudice, bad habits and hostile stand of justifying their own acts while faulting our just exercise of the right to self-defense,” she said
“Only when such a precondition is met, would it be possible to sit face to face and declare the significant termination of war.”
South Korea earlier this month tested its first submarine-launched ballistic missile, just hours after the North tested their own weapon.
North Korea has also often criticized South Korea’s annual military drills with the US.