Making predictions about a country as insular and cryptic as North Korea is often ill-advised, but it seems likely that such warmth towards South Korea will be absent in Kim's upcoming New Year's address. Cheong, the Sejong Institute analyst, said that North Korea believes if Moon's administration was truly pro-North Korea, it "would have stopped the joint US-South Korean military exercises as asked and stopped the import of stealth fighters which can attack North Korea without being detected." "It is very difficult for North Korea to be seen to be cooperative to South Korea or conciliatory," said a South Korean government official. Tours were suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier. The State Departments top official in charge of negotiations with North Korea, Stephen Biegun, has called the deadline "artificial."

Source: CNN December 20, 2019 00:00 UTC