North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's abandonment of unification goals should be seen as a "desperate" move to control internal information, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights said Tuesday. Ambassador Julie Turner made the remarks as she underlined that the human rights situation in the North has worsened in a post-pandemic period marked by what she called increased repression, greater restrictions on freedom of movement and tightened surveillance to name a few. "Kim Jong-un's recent abandonment of reunification goals, the shift and rhetoric towards Seoul should be seen less as a strategic shift signaling his confidence in his ties with Russia and its weapons program and more as a desperate attempt to get control of the internal information environment," she said at a form hosted by the Korea Society. She did not elaborate further, but appears to be referring to Pyongyang's perceived efforts to curb the inflow of information from South Korea and elsewhere, which could lead to North Koreans b eing awakened to a better future outside their impoverished, tightly controlled home country. The North Korean leader has scrapped a decadeslong policy of seeking unification with South Korea, a legacy of his grandfather, and defined inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other." The move raised concerns that Pyongyang could engage in provocative acts amid the absence of meaningful diplomatic engagements between the two Koreas and between the United States and the North. The North's hostile approach to the South also came amid Pyongyang's burgeoning military cooperation with Moscow against the backdrop of Russia's war in Ukraine. During the forum, Turner reiterated Washington's readiness to resume diplomacy with Pyongyang. "The U.S. is ready to engage in a transparent and outcome-oriented discussion with the DPRK on human rights," she said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea "In such discussions, we are prepared to have a frank conversation about our own human rights record and actions we are undertaking to address our own shortcomings," she added. Source: Yonhap News Agency