With only six days until the next South Korean president is elected, North Korea's ruling party newspaper on Wednesday called on the South's next government to distance itself from the U.S. and seek more “independent” inter-Korean policies.

Attacking the former President Park Geun-hye’s inter-Korean policies as “pro-American” and too dependent on Washington, the editorial in the Rodong Sinmun demanded Seoul put an end to the ongoing ROK-U.S. joint military exercises in order to see "peace" with Pyongyang.