Edit: Ahmed Al-Kumi

According to a British newspaper report, the prospect of war with America does not represent the greatest threat to North Korea & apos president, Kim Jong - un, as China is the main threat to him.

According to the British newspaper, "Kim Jong Un has exploited the Corona epidemic, the escalating competition between America and China, to strengthen his regime's grip on the economy, and to impose further restrictions on his country's incursions across the border with China."

According to the report, "Kim Jong Un, who will be celebrating 10 years of government this month, has exploited the severe closure imposed on the country to expel foreign diplomats, relief workers and tighten social restrictions."

In the light of China's determination to maintain the Kim Jong - un regime on the one hand, and to divide the Korean peninsula, even though Beijing objected to Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the newspaper said, the near - total isolation of North Korea was possible.

The paper noted that analysts argue that North Korea's dependence on China is deeply disturbing to Pyongyan officials, who see China, not the United States, as the main threat to the long - term continuation of the North Korean regime.

Andrei Lankov, a North Korean eert at Kokmin University in Seoul, was quoted as saying that "the widespread belief that there is an intellectual correlation between China and North Korea is indeed unfounded."

"Any North Korean intelligence official would say that China is the greatest threat to internal security, because it has the opportunity to destabilize the situation from within," Lankov added.

According to the British newspaper, the aversion between the two countries is rooted in China's role in saving North Korea during the Korean War, Pyongyang's fears that Beijing might infiltrate, and analysts say that China fears that North Korea will not recognize Beijing's debt.

"Yoon Sun," China's program director at the Stumson Think Tank in Washington, said that the North Koreans say Japan is their enemy 100 years ago, while China is a thousand years ago, according to the newspaper.

Sun considered that Kim Jong Un had benefited greatly from the intense conflict and competition between America and China in the survival of his regime; Because the possibility of Beijing abandoning him no longer exists, at least right now.