North Korean daily Rodong Sinmun said in its Tuesday’s editorial that incidents such as the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island would not have occurred had the U.S. and relevant nations been sincere in their response to North Korea’s 2010 proposal for a peace treaty.

The editorial identified the hostile relations between the U.S. and North Korea as stemming from the state of war between the two Koreas. It went on to say that in order for the tensions on the peninsula to ease, North Korea stated that a peace treaty must be signed first.

It added that such demands would facilitate the push for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.