North calls for end to conflict on eve of South Korean election

North Korea called for an end to the conflict between the two Koreas on Monday, the eve of the presidential election in South Korea, and urged a "new era of reunification", in an opinion piece in North Korea's state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Monday.

The article hoped that now that the conservative South Korean party, which it accused of prolonging the inter-Korean confrontation, was out of power, it should be easier to put an end to the conflict and usher in a new era of unification.

South Korea goes to early presidential polls Tuesday, which liberal candidate Moon Jae-in is expected to win.

His victory will likely usher in a period of liberal politics that ended in 2007 when the conservative party came to power in South Korea, a period during which relations between the two Koreas worsened.

The Rodong piece blames the conservatives - who they accuse of being puppets of the United States - for deteriorating relations between North and South Korea, and says they were only interested in confrontation and war over the last decade.

It adds this had led to escalating tension in the region and the risk of a nuclear war has been growing day by day.

The South Korean elections come after months of tension in the peninsula, following repeated weapons tests by Pyongyang and tough rhetoric from President of the United States Donald Trump, who had also hinted at the possibility of a preemptive attack.

In another opinion piece published Monday by the same newspaper, Pyongyang accused the South Korean conservatives of exploiting the security threat from North Korea in its electoral campaign.

It claims that such actions are aimed at "implanting enmity toward the DPRK" and to "justify its policy of confrontation between compatriots."

"The way to ensure security of South Korea is to achieve peace and reunification", the piece had asserted. 

(EFE)