The two Koreas and the U.S. could declare an end to the Korean War before Pyongyang’s complete denuclearization, the South’s unification minister said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a policy briefing at the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, Minister of Unification Cho Myoung-gyon said discussions between the two Koreas and the U.S. have sought to declare the formal end of the Korean war within the year.

“I think we can declare the end to the war… before the North achieves complete denuclearization,” he said.

The unification minister explained that a declaration of the end to the war could be