This photo shows fields in North Korea's Kaepung County on the western front-line border with South Korea, Monday, seen from Ganghwa Island in the South. Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

North Korea watchers show mixed expectations on how inter-Korean relations will develop in the wake of a North Korean defector's return to the North, who, according to the reclusive country, showed symptoms of COVID-19 and could become the country's first officially confirmed case of the virus.

Some say the North may belatedly accept South Korea's offer for inter-Korean cooperation in quarantine and healthcare to cope with the pandemic.

According the North's Korean Central News Agency, Sunday, its leader Kim Jong-un adopted the maximum emergency system against coronavirus following a defector's return from the South with virus symptoms.

Since earlier this year, President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly offered cross-border cooperation in a bid to resuscitate North-South ties, and since the coronavirus pandemic emerged, healthcare cooperation has been at the top of the agenda.

"It is a possible scenario for inter-Korean healthcare cooperation to begin," said Cho Han-beom, a senior researcher of the Korea Institute for National Unification.