North Korea has called for a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War to be signed as soon as possible, to ease military tensions with the United States.

The call was made in a commentary published by the Rodong daily, the newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party.  It said now is the right time for a peace treaty to replace the armistice that has been in place since 1953.

The Korean peninsula is technically still at war since the fighting ended.

North and South Korean leaders held a summit in October that resulted in a call for a meeting of three or four parties to lay groundwork for a formal peace treaty and normalized U.S.-North Korean relations.

But South Korean opponents to the idea argue that any treaty should wait until North Korea completes the full abandonment of its nuclear programs.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.