A U.S. intelligence official said on Thursday that North Korea is more concerned about possible pressure for change from within than attacks from the outside.

Sydney Seiler presented the assessment in a virtual forum hosted by Georgetown University, saying that the biggest dilemma with North Korea is understanding what threat it faces that has driven the nuclear program. 

Seiler is the national intelligence officer for North Korea at the National Intelligence Council under the U.S. Director of National Intelligence(DNI). 

The official said that the North's biggest security concern is not attacks from South Korea or the U.S., but the vulnerability of its system to internal pressures for change that may lead to intervention by outside powers.

He argued that a security guarantee might not be what North Korea truly needed, hinting that the North Korean nuclear issue may be resolved once the issue of regime stability can be addressed.

Seiler said that the conditions under which the North might consider denuclearization are the conditions under which it does not face these concerns about the frailty of its system.

[Photo : YONHAP News]