North Korea’s Kim seeks end to conflict with South

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a speech on state media.

Kim took over power in the reclusive state after his father, Kim Jong-il, died in 2011. But North Korea has offered olive branches before and Kim’s speech does not necessarily signify a change in tack from a state which vilifies the US and its ally South Korea.

The impoverished country raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in December that it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation.