North and South Korea restore cross-border hotline

The restoration comes just days after Pyongyang sparked international concern with a series of missile tests

North and South Korea restored their cross-border hotline on Monday, a step that Seoul said could help improve relations after Pyongyang sparked global concern with a string of missile tests in recent weeks.

The two sides resumed communications with officials exchanging their first phone call since August, days after the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting over the North Korean missile tests.

Seoul's unification ministry confirmed the phone call on Monday morning between officials from the two rivals.

The South's defence ministry also confirmed that cross-border military communications have resumed.

"The government hopes... to swiftly resume dialogue and begin practical discussions for recovering inter-Korean relations."

It reported that the move was an attempt to establish "lasting peace" on the Korean peninsula.

"Even if this leads to talks, we may enter a new phase where North Korea engages in dialogue but continues to carry out provocations simultaneously," said Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University.

The United States was positive about the hotline restoration, with State Department spokesman Ned Price telling reporters, "We support inter-Korean dialogue and engagement, as well as cooperation."

"We remain prepared, as we've said, to meet with DPRK officials without preconditions," Price told reporters, using the North's official name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The two sides said on July 27 this year that all lines were restored. 

They also revealed at the time that Kim and Moon had exchanged a series of letters since April in which they agreed that re-establishing hotlines would be a productive first step in rebooting relations between the two rivals which, despite the end of their 1950-53 conflict, remain technically at war.

In the period since, Pyongyang has held a series of tension-raising missile tests.

On Friday, it said it had successfully fired a new anti-aircraft missile.

sh/sct/sw

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