SEOUL -- North Korea has intensified efforts to distance South Korea from the U.S., as leader Kim Jong Un announces plans to reopen a communications hotline between Pyongyang and Seoul.
In a speech to the Supreme People's Assembly on Wednesday, Kim said he intends to restore the link in early October. The rubber-stamp parliament that day appointed Kim Yo Jong, the leader's sister, to the country's top ruling body, the State Affairs Commission.
Kim Yo Jong has been active in South Korea policy and is expected to wield even greater influence on interactions with Seoul in her new post. She You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.on Sept. 24 suggesting the possibility of a bilateral summit and a formal end to the Korean War.
The lack of improvement in inter-Korean ties has fueled mounting frustration in the South, where President Moon Jae-in's five-year term ends in May. Experts think North Korea hopes to take advantage of such sentiments to dampen hostility against Pyongyang and throw a wrench into the U.S.-South Korean alliance.
South Korea looks to gauge where Pyongyang truly stands. The hotline was shut off in August after South Korea began joint military drills with the Americans. Kim Jong Un and Moon had agreed just one month earlier to restore the link.
The North Korean leader in his speech Wednesday slammed Seoul for being "bent on begging external support and cooperation while clamoring for international cooperation in servitude to the U.S."
Kim Jong Un urged the Moon administration to wí†hdráw what he called hostile policies and a "double-dealing attitude" toward the North. Inter-Korean relations are at a crossroads, he said, "either to advance toward reconciliation and cooperation after warming the present cooled-off relations, or to suffer from national division amid a vicious cycle of confrontation."
Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un rejected the idea of dialogue with U.S. President Joe Biden. Washington is unchanged in its military threats and hostile policy toward North Korea, Kim said.
"The U.S. is touting 'diplomatic engagement' and 'dialogue without preconditions,' but it is no more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community," he said.
These comments "are a high-level strategy to tap the Moon administration's frustrations as its tenure comes to a close," said a former analyst at South Korea's intelligence agency. Moon had hoped to produce major improvements in ties with North Korea.
By pressing the South to distance itself from the U.S., North Korea also could be looking to exert pressure on the Biden administration, which is seen as reluctant to engage with Pyongyang.
North Korea also may be stirring the pot for the next South Korean presidential election. The rift between South Korea's progressives, who want to continue Moon's more conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang, and hard-line conservatives, who see the alliance with the U.S. as a top priority, is only expected to deepen should inter-Korean relations emerge as a major campaign topic.