North Korea appears to define its ties with South Korea as those between “two belligerent states” in an effort to intensify tensions on the Korean Peninsula so as to be recognized as a nuclear state by the United States, an expert said Wednesday.

At a year-end party meeting last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said inter-Korean relations are now those between “two nations hostile to each other” and ordered preparations for “a great event to suppress the whole territory” of South Korea in the event of a contingency.

“The Kim regime is presumed to be using the strategy of heightening military tensions on the peninsula to be recognized as a nuclear state by the U.S. government,” Oh Gyeong-seob, a director at the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification, said in a report.

He said if the security situation on the peninsula becomes unstable due to North Korea’s provocations, the issue of a nuclear disarmament or a revisit to the nuclear non-proliferation regime could be raised.

Analysts said
North Korea is expected to focus on improving its nuclear and missile programs to raise its leverage ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, hoping that former U.S. President Donald Trump will be reelected.

The North Korean leader held three meetings with Trump, but denuclearization talks have remained stalled since the collapse of their Hanoi summit in February 2019.

Oh also said North Korea is forecast to strengthen the role of agencies dealing with espionage operations or external ties, while dissolving or shrinking bodies in charge of inter-Korean affairs, such as the National Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

At the party meeting, the North’s leader called for revamping agencies handling inter-Korean affairs as he will no longer consider South Korea a counterpart for reconciliation and unification.

Some experts said North Korea’s foreign ministry may absorb the United Front Department at the ruling party, a key unit in charge of affairs with South Korea.

Sourc
e: Yonhap News Agency