(Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s Moon Jae-in urged world leaders to bring the 70-year-old Korean War to a formal end, in his latest attempt to resuscitate stalled talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

The South Korean president argued in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that officially declaring an end to the 1950-53 conflict was the first step toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Although an armistice between the U.S.-led UN Command and China and North Korea ended open fighting, the agreement was never signed by South Korea and never replaced with a peace treaty.

“The war must end, completely and for good,” Moon said in a virtual address to the UN in New York. “I hope that the UN and the international community provide support so that we can advance into an era of reconciliation and prosperity.”

Moon is seeking to revive nuclear talks that have produced little since Trump rejected demands for sanctions relief from North Korea’s Kim and walked away from their second summit in Hanoi in February 2019. The South Korean president has long advocated an end-of-war declaration as a way to ease North Korean suspicions that America’s goal is to remove Kim from power.

The two Korean leaders pledged in a landmark meeting on their heavily militarized border in 2018 that they would work together to officially end the war. A treaty has proved elusive, however, because some in the U.S. fear it could undercut the rationale for keeping American troops on the peninsula and remove pressure on Kim to compromise in nuclear talks. China has also been wary of a three-way deal that could draw North Korea toward the U.S.

The Korean War began in June 1950 after Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, launched a surprise attack on the South and American forces on the peninsula, ultimately drawing in troops from around the globe. The conflict resulted in the death, injury or displacement of millions of Koreans, Americans, Chinese and UN troops and civilians, with thousands still unaccounted for.

The war’s 70th anniversary has seen the return of tensions, with Kim repeatedly rejecting Moon’s overtures for talks. In June, North Korea blew up the $15 million liaison office the South Korea side had built two years ago to serve as a de facto embassy for the countries.

“The end-of-war declaration will, indeed, open the door to complete denuclearization and a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” Moon said Tuesday.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.