PYONGYANG, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has repeated its demand of concluding a peace treaty with the United States to replace the Armistice Agreement, which ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The armistice regime created an unstable situation of neither war nor peace and was posing a constant threat to security in East Asia and the other regions of the Asia-Pacific, said the official KCNA news agency on Thursday.

The report said the DPRK viewed a peace treaty as vital to building the confidence needed to facilitate the denuclearization of the peninsula. "The DPRK attached very great importance to concluding a peace treaty," it said.

If the peace treaty was signed, the DPRK would "successfully solve all the problems ... including denuclearization and provide a sure guarantee for peace and security on the Korean peninsula," it added.

The DPRK said in a foreign ministry statement on Monday that a peace treaty and lifting of international sanctions were necessary before it would return to the six-party talks on denuclearization.