South Korea’s public gestures to provide the North with COVID-19 aid could be seen as “humiliating” and damage prospects for future talks, a prominent defector politician said on Thursday.

Tae Yong-ho, a former DPRK diplomat and now a member of South Korea’s parliament, urged the Moon Jae-in administration to “avoid bringing up sensational issues” like COVID-19, since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un considers his country’s virus-free status as “one of the greatest feats of his leadership.”

Tae’s remark came at the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee meeting this