North Korea cut off all official military and political channels of communication last June, in response to South Korean activists sending leaflets to the north criticizing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for human rights abuses and a nuclear weapons program.
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Pyongyang then announced that it would cut off communications with its southern neighbor, and subsequently destroyed the liaison office of the two Korean states in the border town of Kesong in the DPRK. It was established three years ago and was considered the first step towards the establishment of embassies and closer cooperation between the two Korean states.
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AFP recalled that the disruption also took place in the context of a stalemate between the two Korean states, two years after three meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Mun Zhen in 2018. But to everyone’s surprise, the two camps, which are still technically at war, announced the resumption of all communications by Tuesday morning.
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“In accordance with the agreement between the top officials, the North and the South have taken measures to reopen all inter-Korean communication lines from ten o’clock on July 27,” the North Korean news agency KCNA reported. She called the resumption of “hotlines” a major step towards restoring trust and reconciliation.
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Some experts have predicted that the DPRK may be forced to contact the United States or South Korea if its economic difficulties worsen. The North Korean leader in recent speeches called on the people to prepare for prolonged restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic. This may indicate a worsening of the situation, but foreign observers did not notice signs of mass starvation or social chaos in the country with 26 million inhabitants, the AP agency noted.
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Both countries remain divided by the world’s most fortified border. In the south of the peninsula, about 28,500 US troops remain to deter the DPRK from possible aggression, the AP added.
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