South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for a “peaceful Korean Peninsula free from the threat of war and hostility” at a ceremony on Friday honoring troops killed in clashes with Pyongyang, but stopped short of mentioning North Korea. 

During the ceremony at the Daejeon National Cemetery, Lee said maintaining strong defense capabilities while striving for peace was the “mission” left by the 55 service members killed defending the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea between 2002 and 2010.

But rather than labeling North Korea as the aggressor like his predecessors, he broadly called for easing tensions and advancing