North and South Korea ask UN to circulate peace declaration

North Korea and South Korea asked the United Nations on Friday to circulate a peace declaration their leaders agreed to in April that vows to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula and work toward a formal end to the Korean War.

North Korea's UN Mission said ambassadors of the two countries sent a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak requesting that they circulate the "Panmunjom Declaration on Peace, Prosperity and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula" as an official UN document.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the letter had been received and was being processed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to the declaration at a summit in the demilitarised zone in Panmunjom on April 27 where the two men from nations with a deep and bitter history of acrimony held each other's hands and walked over each side of the border.

North Korea said the request to circulate the document to the 193 UN member states "shows full determination of North and South Korea to keep advancing the North-South ties without deviation" and to demonstrate that they "have entered definitely the new orbit of peace, the orbit of reconciliation and cooperation."
North Korea said active support from all UN members to implement the declaration "would exert great encouragement to the dramatic changes towards relaxation of the tension and the peace on (the) Korean peninsula."
Kim told Chung that work to dismantle the only missile engine test site in North Korea "means a complete suspension of future long-range ballistic missile tests."