N. Korea says open to talks if South drops double standards

SEOUL, Sept 24 (Reuters)- South Korea’s call for a formal end to the Korean War is premature but the door for dialogue is open if it scraps its double standards and hostile policy, a senior North Korean official said in comments published by state media on Friday.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice not a peace treaty, leaving U.S.-led U.N. forces technically still at war with North Korea. The question of formally ending the war has become caught up in a U.S.-led effort to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

South Korea President Moon Jae-in repeated a call for a formal end to the war in an address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Senior North Korean official Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said Moon’s proposal was “interesting and admirable” but conditions were not right because of South Korea’s persistent double standards, prejudice and hostility.