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 Thursday, where members of the opposition People Power Party