“North Korea should abandon its path of isolation and degeneration and take the path of permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, and co-existence and co-prosperity of the Korean people,” Chung told an audience of several thousand at Seoul’s ceremony attended by government officials, war veterans, bereaved and separated families, and South Korea-stationed foreign diplomats.

The two Koreas remain technically "at war" since no peace treaty was signed when the Korean War ended in 1953. Tensions mounted on the Korean Peninsula earlier this year after North Korea conducted new nuclear tests. Pyongyang threatened Seoul and the United States with war and closed off the joint industrial zone in Kaesong following a new round of international sanctions, but later voiced willingness to negotiate.

There is no official record on the war’s losses, but according to historians, some 970,000 South Koreans, 1.7 million North Koreans, 150,000 UN troops, mostly Americans, and 900,000 Chinese were killed. Over 10 million people were separated as a result, Yonhap reported.