North and South Korea have restored their cross-border communication, with officials exchanging their first phone call Monday after dropping them in August.
The restoration comes just days after Pyongyang staged a string of missile tests in the span of a few weeks, prompting the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting.
The two Koreas had signaled a surprise thaw in relations in late July by announcing the resumption of cross-border communications — severed more than a year earlier — but the detente was short-lived, as North Korea stopped answering calls just two weeks later.
Seoul’s unification ministry confirmed officials from the two rivals exchanged their first phone call since August on Monday morning.
The South’s defense ministry meanwhile confirmed that cross-border military communications have also resumed.
“With the restoration of the South-North communication line, the government evaluates that a foundation for recovering inter-Korean relations has been provided,” the unification ministry said in a statement.
“The government hopes… to swiftly resume dialogue and begin practical discussions for recovering inter-Korean relations,” it added.
Earlier Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had “expressed the intention of restoring the cut-off north-south communication lines,” North Korea’s official news agency KCNA said.
They reported that the move was an attempt to establish “lasting peace” on the Korean peninsula.
Source: AFP
