Why are North Korea and South Korea technically still at war?

North and South Korea remain technically at war because the Korean War (1950–53) concluded with an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty.12

Signed on July 27, 1953, the armistice agreement established a ceasefire to halt the fighting, which had resulted in millions of casualties. While the agreement successfully ended active combat and created the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as a buffer between the two nations, it did not resolve the underlying political conflict. Subsequent diplomatic efforts, including a 1954 conference in Geneva, failed to produce a lasting peace agreement.123

Because no final treaty was ever signed to officially end the state of war, the two Koreas remain in a condition of frozen conflict, separated by one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world.2