[1] The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953, and was designed to "ensure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved.

"[2] During the 1954 Geneva Conference in Switzerland, Chinese Premier and foreign minister Zhou Enlai suggested that a peace treaty should be implemented on the Korean peninsula.

[3] The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a ceasefire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war.

The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has separated North and South Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.

[9] The desired agreement would end the fighting, provide assurances against its resumption, and protect the future security of UNC forces.

He believed the ROK should continue to expand its army in order to march all the way to the Yalu River and completely unify the nation.

[5] Even without UNC support, Rhee and the South Korean government attempted to mobilize the public to resist any halt in the fighting short of the Yalu River.

[11] Other ROK officials supported Rhee's ambitions and the National Assembly of South Korea unanimously passed a resolution endorsing a continued fight for an "independent and unified country.

[15] The two primary negotiators were Chief of Army Staff General Nam Il, a North Korean deputy premier, and United States Vice Admiral Charles Turner Joy.

The longest gap between discussions started on 23 August 1951,[17] when North Korea and its allies claimed that the conference site in Kaesong had been bombed.

[24] In the final armistice agreement, signed on 27 July 1953, a Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission, chaired by Indian General K. S. Thimayya, was set up to handle the matter.

[29] Upon agreeing to the armistice, the belligerents established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which has since been patrolled by KPA, ROKA, United States, and Joint UNC forces.

While the Chinese leader Mao Zedong was not then willing to compromise, the new Soviet leadership issued a statement two weeks after Stalin's death, which called for a quick end to hostilities.

[33] The signed Armistice established a "complete cessation of all hostilities in Korea by all armed forces,"[2] which was to be enforced by the commanders of both sides.

The peace agreement on the Korean peninsula was officially raised at the conference, by Chinese diplomat Zhou Enlai with the US Secretary of Defense, John Foster Dulles, but no progress was made.

[35] In September 1956 the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Radford indicated that the U.S. military intention was to introduce atomic weapons into Korea, which was agreed to by the U.S. National Security Council and President Eisenhower.

[38][44] North Korea believed the U.S. had introduced new weapons earlier, citing NNSC inspection team reports for August 1953 to April 1954.

[46] Following the abrogation of paragraph 13d, the NNSC largely lost its function, and became primarily office based in the DMZ with a small staff.

[38] In 1975, the U.N. General Assembly adopted resolutions endorsing the desirability of replacing the Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty and dissolving the UNC.

[7] In January 2002 U.S. President George W. Bush, in his first State of the Union Address, labeled North Korea a part of an Axis of Evil.

[64] In August 2016, North Korea installed anti-personnel mines to prevent the defection of its front-line border guards around the Bridge of No Return, situated in the Joint Security Area (JSA).

[65] The UN Command protested this move as it violates the Armistice Agreement which specifically prohibits armed guards and anti-personnel mines.

[69] The DPRK later called off talks with South Korea scheduled for 16 May, blaming U.S.–South Korean military exercises, and threw the planned 12 June summit into doubt, saying it might not attend if Washington continues to demand it unilaterally abandon its nuclear arsenal.

[75] The third day of the Moon–Kim summit yielded a joint statement from the two leaders announcing an agreement to pursue a co-host bid for the 2032 Olympic Games.

[77] Over the years, United States Presidents have made proclamations in support of the National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.

[78][79][80] North Korea commemorates 27 July as a national holiday known as Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.