"I once again urge the community of nations to mobilize its strengths for the end-of-war declaration on the Korean Peninsula," Moon said in a speech to the annual gathering of the world body, as quoted by Reuters.

"I propose that three parties of the two Koreas and the US, or four parties of the two Koreas, the US and China come together and declare that the War on the Korean Peninsula is over," he said.

North Korea had long sought a formal end to the Korean War to replace the armistice that stopped the fighting but left it and the United States-led United Nations Command still technically at war.

Moon, who has been active in trying to engage with North Korea throughout his presidency, has argued that such a declaration would encourage North Korea to give up to denuclearize. Washington has said Pyongyang must give up its nuclear weapons first.

Earlier on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden addressed the UN assembly and said the US sought "serious and sustained diplomacy to pursue the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

"We seek concrete progress toward an available plan with tangible commitments that would increase stability on the Peninsula and in the region, as well as improve the lives of the people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea," he said, using North Korea's official name.

North Korea has brushed off US calls for a return to dialogue and the head of the UN atomic watchdog said this week that Pyongyang's nuclear program is going "full steam ahead."

Speedy resumption

Moon also called for a "speedy resumption" of talks between the US and North Korea, as reported by AFP.

The call comes a week after Washington said Pyongyang had violated UN Security Council resolutions by firing two ballistic missiles into the sea.

"I call for a speedy resumption of dialogue between the two Koreas and between the United States and North Korea," Moon told world leaders in New York.

"I hope to see that the Korean peninsula will prove the power of dialogue and cooperation in fostering peace," he added.

Talks between North Korea and Washington have been stalled since the collapse of a 2019 summit between the authoritarian state's young leader Kim Jong Un and then US president Donald Trump over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.

Trump said he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing war, but North Korea never signed a permanent agreement to end its nuclear program.

Biden's administration said in an April policy review on North Korea that the US was willing to engage Pyongyang.

But it also signaled it was looking more for a practical approach following the unusual personal diplomacy of Trump, who met three times with Kim.

In July, the Koreas announced the restoration of official military and political communication links that were severed more than a year ago.

Last week, North Korea fired "two short-range ballistic missiles" from South Pyongan province into the sea off its east coast, Seoul said.

They came hours before South Korea successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile, becoming only the seventh country in the world with the advanced technology and raising the prospect of a regional arms race. 

Popular

Volcano erupts in North Sulawesi, hundreds evacuated

Dubai roads, airport reel from floods after record rains

Ramadan boosts consumer confidence, retail sales