South Korea's ruling party chief has claimed North Korea may collapse in three years, a sensitive comment that could anger the communist country amid lingering tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim Moo-sung, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party, said his argument is based on the notion that the Soviet Union collapsed 73 years after the Communists took power.

"It has become seven decades since Kim Il-sung regime took power. So three years are left," the ruling party chief said at a speech on Monday, referring to the North Korean founder.

Still, Kim did not provide any logical reasons on how the disintegration of the Soviet Union is connected to North Korea's possible collapse.

North Korea has long suspected that Seoul could be plotting to absorb Pyongyang, a claim denied by South Korea.

The ruling party chief also criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over his hairstyle.

Kim Jong-un, the grandson of the late founder Kim Il-sung, sports a slicked-back, wedge-like pompadour with the sides shaved.

North Korea has made no immediate reaction, but it is expected to fire back against the South Korean politician over what it may perceive as an insult to the supreme dignity of its leader, Kim Jong-un.

North Korea has a track record of denouncing leaders of South Korea and the United States.

In 2013, Pyongyang made a sexist swipe at President Park Geun-hye by criticizing her "venomous swish of skirt," which it said made South Korean officials engage in warmongering.  

In 2009, North Korea's foreign ministry described then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as "a primary school girl" and "a pensioner going shopping" in response to her criticism of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. (Yonhap)