President Moon Jae-in said that the government will push for talks with North Korea on excavating troop remains in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

The president made the remarks in a message to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War in a meeting of Korean War veterans in Pentagon City on the outskirts of Washington on Saturday.

In the message read by South Korean Ambassador to the United States Cho Yoon-je, Moon said that in September last year, the two Koreas agreed to jointly excavate for the remains in the DMZ, and a remains recovery program is underway at Arrowhead Ridge inside the DMZ since April, where fierce battles were fought during the war.

The president said that once the excavation for the remains is completed at Arrowhead Ridge, the government will expand the program to include the entire DMZ through South-North consultations.

He added South Korea will make sure that the construction of a "Memorial Wall of Remembrance" will be done by 2022 as scheduled within the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington.