TOKYO — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday described South Korean President Moon Jae-in's proposal to declare a formal end to the Korean War "an interesting" and "an admirable idea," saying her country is willing to keep close contacts with the south, state media reported.

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency that the declaration could end the instable state of ceasefire that has remained on the Korean peninsula for a long time and withdraw hostility toward the opposite party.

At the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this week, Moon proposed the issue of the declaration of the termination of the war on the 1950-53 Korean Peninsula. Her statement comes just hours after the North's Vice Foreign Minister Ri Thaesong dismissed Moon's end-of-war declaration proposal as "premature."

"There is nothing wrong in the declaration of the termination of the war itself," Kim said. But she also stressed that Pyongyang will look into whether it is right time now and whether there are conditions ripe for discussing this issue.

"We have willingness to keep our close contacts with the South again and have constructive discussion with it about the restoration and development of the bilateral relations if it is careful about its future language and not hostile toward us."

"Now double-dealing standards, prejudice and hostile policies toward the DPRK and speeches and acts antagonizing us persist. Under such situation it does not make any sense to declare the end of the war with all the things, which may become a seed of a war between parties that had been at odds for more than half a century, left intact," she noted.

DPRK stands for the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim said the North would sit face to face and declare the significant termination of war and discuss development of inter-Korean relations and the future of the Korean peninsula only when such a precondition is met.

The two Koreas are still technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended without a formal peace treaty. About 28,500 US soldiers are stationed here as a legacy of the war. — Agencies