North, South Korea mark war’s 70 anniversary

South Korean military leaders on Thursday visited a national cemetery in Seoul, where about 130,000 soldiers from the Korean War are buried or honored. Millions of people died, including about 36,000 U.S. soldiers, in the conflict that began on June 25, 1950. North Korean officials marked the anniversary with official visits this week to monuments honoring the country’s fallen soldiers while describing the conflict as “the Fatherland Liberation War” in newspaper editorials.

How are relations on the Korean Peninsula? The two nations remain in an official state of war since they never signed a peace treaty after the 1953 armistice ended the fighting. North Korea on Wednesday halted its latest barrage of threats and attacks against the South after accusing it of failing to abide by a 2018 agreement. In a joint statement marking the anniversary, South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper urged North Korea to implement previous disarmament pledges.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift on the ongoing tension between the two countries.