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Inter-Korean military conflict hardly probable now, says Japanese expert

On Tuesday, North Korea blew up its joint liaison office with Seoul in Kaesong

TOKYO, June 18. /TASS/. A military conflict between North and South Korea is hardly probable now as the Koreas’ armed standoff would crush Pyongyang’s hopes for improving the relations with the United States, renowned Japanese expert on Korean problems, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily NK Japan news portal Ko Yong Gi told TASS on Thursday.

"North Korea will not take any military measures against the South at least until the presidential elections in the United States," the expert said, commenting on the current escalation of tension between Pyongyang and Seoul.

"Pyongyang’s top priority today is to improve the relations with the United States. A military conflict with the South would ruin all of North Korea’s achievements in this area, including personal contacts between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump," he said.

The expert said, however, that North Korea might resort to other measures in this situation. "There may be military drills directly at the disengagement line with the South, the launches of short-and medium-range missiles and propaganda rhetoric tightening," he explained.

"In any case, the current situation signifies a failure of the policy of a dialogue with the North, which Seoul has been striving to pursue over the past twenty years. After the latest meeting between Kim Jong-un and Trump failed in Hanoi in February last year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been unable to play the role of a mediator between Pyongyang and Washington. He has also failed to individually provide economic assistance to the North. Pyongyang’s current irritation is linked precisely with this," the expert pointed out.

North Korea has been officially taking measures towards Seoul lately on the direct instructions of Kim’s younger sister Kim Yo-jong who holds the post of the first vice department director of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee, the expert said.

In the expert’s opinion, she has now turned into the country’s person No. 2.

On Tuesday, North Korea blew up its joint liaison office with Seoul in Kaesong. It was opened in September 2018 to help the two Koreas communicate. Initially, representatives from South Korea and North Korea agreed to meet in Kaesong twice a day, but after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, they switched over to telephone communications.

Earlier, Pyongyang excoriated Seoul for sending propaganda leaflets across the border and pledged to retaliate, going even as far as sending troops to the regions along the demilitarized zone. Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong, first vice director of the United Front Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, openly warned that the office would be shortly demolished.