The Blue House, the presidential palace of South Korea, said on Tuesday (July 27) that as the leaders of the two countries renewed their efforts to rebuild relations, South Korea and North Korea resumed the hotline that Pyongyang cut off a year ago when relations deteriorated sharply.
Moon Jae-in’s press secretary Park Soo-hyun said that since April, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have exchanged letters several times and agreed to reconnect the hotline.
North Korea’s official media KCNA also stated that according to the agreement reached between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un, all inter-Korean communication channels have resumed operations at 10 am (0100 GMT) on Tuesday morning.
In a statement, Park Geun-hye said: “The leaders of the two countries have repeatedly trusted each other, discussed ways to restore relations, and agreed to restore the cut-off hotline as the first step in this process.” “They also agreed to regain them as soon as possible. Trust and promote the relationship to progress again.”
The KCNA claimed that the opening of the hotline was “a big step in restoring mutual trust and promoting reconciliation.”
North Korea cut off the hotline in June 2020 because after the failure of the second summit between Kim Jong Un and former US President Donald Trump in February 2019, cross-border relations deteriorated and Moon Jae-in proposed mediation.
After this move, the joint liaison office within North Korea was destroyed. The liaison office was established in 2018 to promote better relations and minimize relations between competitors.
The Seoul Ministry of National Defense confirmed that a military hotline was tested on Tuesday and regular communications twice a day will resume.
The Ministry of Unification, which handles inter-Korean affairs, also stated that the telephone line installed at Panmunjom in the Armistice Village on the border has also been restored. It welcomes it and expresses its hope to restart cooperation.
Moon Jae-in called for the resumption of the hotline and talks, hoping that US President Joe Biden would resume negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
However, it is unclear whether the reopening of the hotline is a serious sign that Pyongyang will respond to the proposals of Moon Jae-in and Biden’s administrations, who called for the start of denuclearization negotiations in a “reliable, predictable and constructive” manner.
“Since President Biden took office, the United States has continued to engage with North Korea. I think this shows that Pyongyang is willing to respond,” said James Kim of the Asan Policy Research Institute in Seoul.
“But it’s too early to read too much about these gestures,” Jin added. “We need to see Pyongyang’s serious attitude towards denuclearization so that we can say there is real progress.”
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of Korean Studies in Seoul, said that exchanging information about COVID-19 and natural disasters may be a way to rebuild relationships.
North Korea has not officially confirmed any COVID-19 outbreak, but it has closed its borders and adopted strict anti-virus measures, treating the pandemic as a matter of national survival.
The announcement comes as the two countries mark the 68th anniversary of the armistice of the Korean War in 1950-53. According to KCNA reports, Kim Jong-un paid tribute to the fallen soldiers and presented gifts to the surviving veterans.
