Just a month ago, North Korea launched a ballistic missile and called South Korea’s president an American “parrot” who lacks even “elementary logic.” But Seoul’s unification minister thinks that Pyongyang is currently restraining itself from behaving even worse in order to leave the door open for future dialogue.

Speaking to South Korean reporters on Thursday, Lee In-young said that inter-Korean talks can resume “immediately” if North Korea finds a will to chat again.

“Although they are using harsh rhetoric … I understand that they are, in their own way, controlling the level of the intensity in its words in order