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Moon's repeated calls directed at Biden administration: experts

By Kang Seung-woo

President Moon Jae-in's repeated calls to officially end the Korean War indicate his administration's determination to continue with diplomatic attempts to resuscitate stalled talks between the United States and North Korea and eventually advance deadlocked inter-Korean ties, even if the U.S. undergoes a leadership change, Pyongyang watchers said, Friday.

Moon suggested in his speech to the Korea Society, Thursday, that South Korea and the U.S. join forces to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 war, saying it will open the door for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Last month, Moon also floated the idea in his address to the virtual U.N. General Assembly session.

The Korean War ended in an armistice after an agreement was signed in 1953 by the U.S.-led United Nations Command, China and North Korea, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war, and the Moon administration has touted an end-of-war declaration as a starting point for a full-fledged peace process.

However, the U.S. and the North have yet to respond to his repeated calls. And his proposal has faced criticism domestically for being ill-timed, following the shooting death of a South Korean official by North Korean troops in the North's territorial waters last month and the belated disclosure of a high-profile former North Korean diplomat's defection to the South.