Source:SEOUL: Cash-strapped North Korea demanded on Thursday that the United States pay almost $65 trillion in compensation for six decades of hostility.
The cost of the damage done by the United States since the peninsula was divided in 1945 is estimated at $64.96 trillion, the official news agency said, in a report on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The figure includes $26.1 trillion arising from US "atrocities" which left more than five million North Koreans dead, wounded, kidnapped or missing, KCNA said.
Six decades of US sanctions had caused a loss of $13.7 trillion by 2005 while property losses were estimated at $16.7 dollars, said the agency which also listed a large number of smaller claims.
North Koreans have "the justifiable right" to receive the compensation for their blood, it said.
The war started on June 25, 1950, with a North Korean invasion approved by the then-Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
The Communist country insists that South Korea and its US ally instigated the conflict, in which a US-led United Nations force fought for the South and China backed the North.
The war left 1.23 million people dead and 2.46 million wounded in the North, the news agency said, citing a state committee which assessed the damage.
Independent casualty estimates vary greatly but most say that a total of some two million civilians died in the North and the South along with 215,000 North Korean troops.
The fighting left the peninsula in ruins. The North suffered huge damage from US bombing raids.
The agency said the committee's calculation did not include the damage North Korea had suffered from sanctions after its first nuclear test in 2006.
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