The leader of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party (DP) said Monday that Seoul should not outright dismiss North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s vision of a “two-state” system and that it should consider if the notion could promote peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang.

While Kim Jong Un’s two-state doctrine dismantling the vision of a unified Korea is “difficult to agree with,” it “reflects the international reality in which the two Koreas have effectively been recognized as two states,” lawmaker Kim Min-seok said in his party’s representative address to the National Assembly.

North Korea’s growing cooperation with China and Russia, economic recovery