Seoul: Former US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said in a statement that North Korea may be considering engaging with South Korea and the rest of the world. North Korea reopened direct communication channels with South Korea earlier this month, after a 55-day suspension during which it conducted at least four missile tests, including the test launch of what it claims to be a new hypersonic missile.

Biegun said this, while addressing a webinar co-hosted by George Washington University's Institute for Korean Studies and the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management, South Korea. "We've seen a sequence of events that many analysts have interpreted as increasingly provocative behaviour by North Korea. But I will say that there's a school of thought and I'm inclined to believe it that the fact that North Korea is beginning to send external messaging suggests to me that North Korea is at least contemplating the terms under which it will re-engage with the rest of the world."

"It's very probable that just as the North Korean government was fixated on the US presidential election from mid-2019 until November 3 of 2020, it seems probable that the North Korean regime is also now fixated on the South Korean elections coming up in the spring of next year, which could lead to a change in government from the progressives to the conservative politicians."From my point of view, the most important thing is, in fact, a communications link, he added.

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