Inter-Korean Hotline

[Anchor Lead]

A cross-border communication line between the two Koreas at the truce village of Panmunjom has been restored. It had been suspended for nearly two years, and during that time South and North Korea communicated with each other using loudspeakers. Now, they can contact one another over the phone.

[Pkg]

South and North Korea used their inter-Korean hotline at the truce village of Panmunjom for 20 minutes starting at 3:30 p.m. It was the North that called first. The Ministry of Unification said that during the call the two sides checked if the hotline was working properly.

[Soundbite] Baek Tae-hyun(Spokesperson, Ministry of Unification) : "The government welcomes North Korea's positive response to its offer to check the inter-Korean hotline in Panmunjom."

The Panmunjom hotline has been restored after one year and 11 months. North Korea severed all communication channels with the South, including the Panmunjom hotline and the military communication line, following the shutdown of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in February 2016. The communication lines had remained connected all along, but the North did not respond.

[Soundbite] Shin Beom-chul(Korea National Diplomatic Academy) : "The restoration of the hotline has a great meaning, because its reopening will enable South and North Korea to communicate and hold working-level discussions."

The North has repeatedly severed and restored the communication channels according to its own needs. The regime cut its communication with the South each time it faced a crisis, such as economic sanctions following the explosion of the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan and U.N. sanctions in response to its third nuclear test. But it re-opened them whenever it wanted. That was possible because South Korea always responded to the North's calls. In May 2016, after inter-Korean communication had been severed due to the shutdown of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, Pyongyang used the Yellow Sea military communication line, which it preserved unilaterally, to propose inter-Korean military talks.