Whereas the Korean war remains one of the world’s longest ongoing armed conflicts, in which the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), the Republic of Korea (South Korea), the United States, and 20 other nations have suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties and losses, and millions of civilians killed and wounded; Whereas, on June 25, 1950, the armed forces of North Korea attacked South Korea, an action which the United Nations Security Council determined constituted a breach of the peace under chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, after which the United States militarily intervened in the conflict in defense of South Korea; Whereas, on July 27, 1953, the commander in chief of the United Nations Command signed an Armistice Agreement with the supreme commander of the North Korean People’s Army and the commander of the Chinese People’s Volunteers, aiming, by its terms, to insure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved ; Whereas the Armistice Agreement, by its terms, neither formally ended the war nor represented a final peaceful settlement; Whereas the persistence of a state of war represents a constant risk and threat to the national security of the United States and its allies; Whereas in Article III of the Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of Korea, signed at Washington on October 1, 1953, and still in force today, the United States recognized that an armed attack on South Korea would be dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, and declared that the United States would act in accordance with its constitutional principles to meet the common danger of such an armed attack