Political candidates supportive of resuming engagement with North Korea appear set to benefit from Ban Ki-moon’s Wednesday drop-out of the presidential campaign, observers familiar with the peninsula told NK News on Thursday.

In the short-term, therefore, it appears North Korea may refrain from pursuing tactics against the South which could undermine support for progressive candidates like Moon Jae-in, the left-leaning front runner.

“No conservative or centrist candidate will benefit permanently from Ban’s withdrawal from the race,” said Dr. Go Myung-Hyun of Seoul’s Asan Institute on Thursday. “None of the remaining candidates opposing Moon has the level of name recognition and political stature that Ban had.

“There will be a