U.S. specialists on Korean Peninsula affairs predict that the U.S. government will not immediately change its policy toward North Korea despite the ongoing developments in power succession in the North.

Heritage Foundation researcher Bruce Klingner said that some are predicting that Kim Jong-un, who was recently promoted by his father Kim Jong-il to ranking positions within the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, would adopt somewhat moderate policies because he was educated in the West. However, he said that there is no solid evidence to back the prediction.

Richard Bush, director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, said that Kim Jong-un is unlikely to take power in the near future and that a collective leadership could rule the communist country in his name.

The head of Foreign Policy in Focus, John Feffer, said that there could be a chance to restart the six-way nuclear talks after the November mid-term elections in the U.S. are over and once uncertainties are cleared up in North Korea.