South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called for talks with North Korea aimed at replacing the decades-old armistice on the peninsula with a formal peace arrangement.
Lee used his address marking the 81st anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule to renew his outreach to Pyongyang.
Speaking at a ceremony in Seoul on Saturday, Lee proposed that the two Koreas sit down together to work toward peaceful coexistence rather than confrontation.
"Rather than a concession, this would mark the start of coexistence," Lee said in his speech, framing dialogue not as a compromise but as the opening step toward a shared future on the peninsula.
The Korean War of 1950-53 ended in a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.
Lee said discussions between North Korea and other concerned parties could work toward formally ending that conflict and could also take up ways to curb Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
He added that Seoul intends to move step by step to convert the peninsula's unstable armistice into a lasting peace framework, while building layered safeguards to prevent any escalation of tensions.
The overture builds on a pledge Lee made in his address last year, when he said his government would respect North Korea's political system, rule out any unification by absorption, and avoid hostile acts toward Pyongyang.
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Inter-Korean relations, however, remain largely frozen.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has shelved Pyongyang's longstanding reunification policy, branded Seoul its principal adversary, and ordered a build-up of defences along the frontier.
North Korea has so far rebuffed Lee's repeated engagement attempts, while also criticising South Korea's plans for nuclear-powered submarines and denouncing joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington as provocative.
On ties with Japan, Lee struck a more conciliatory note, saying Seoul was ready to confront the difficult history between the two countries while keeping the relationship open to the future.
He described Japan as a close neighbour and expressed hope for a new chapter of peace and prosperity between the two nations spanning the coming decades.
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