North Korea nullifies armistice agreement

Matt Wotus 
Features Writer 

North Korea declared its armistice agreement with South Korea invalid on Monday, meaning that the two sides can resume fighting if they wish to. The truce, signed in 1953, ended the three-year Korean War. Because the document was an armistice instead of a treaty, the two sides have technically remained at war for around 60 years. 

After declaring the truce with its southern counterpart void, North Korea blamed the United States. “The U.S. has reduced the armistice agreement to a dead paper,” wrote the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the official newspaper of the Workers' Party, the ruling party in North Korea. The country’s phone links with South Korea were also cut off.

The armistice, in addition to allowing for peace, created the Demilitarized Zone, the line separating North Korea from South Korea, spanning 155 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. In addition, the security alliance between the two countries allows for the 28,500 American troops currently stationed in South Korea. Any military clash would risk drawing American Armed Forces into battle.

Information gathered from CNN