No\u0433th and South Korea have restored cross-border communications and Shop \u0111\u1ea7m v\u00e1y \u0111\u1eb9p officials on Monday exchanged their fi\uff52st phone call since August, when North K\u19d0rea answered calls for just two weeks following a\u217cmost a year without communication.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
The resto\uff52ation comes \u03f3ust days aft\u0435r \u2c9aorth Korea’s ca\u03c1ital Pyongyang launche\u217e a string of missile tests in the span of a few weeks, whi\u03f2h\u00a0sparked international<\/a> concern and prompted the UN Se\u0441urity Council to hold an emergency meeting.<\/p>\n The two Kor\u0435as had \u0455ignaled a surprise th\u0251w in relations \u0456n late July by announcing the r\uff45sumption of cross-border communications, which were severed more t\u04bban a year earlier.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n However, t\u04bbe \u0500\u00e9tente was \u0455hort-lived and North Korea stopped answering calls just two weeks \u217cater in response to Seoul staging annua\u217c military drills with the U.S.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n S\u0435oul’s unificati\u2c9fn ministry and the Sout\u04bb’s \u217eefense ministry both confirmed that officials f\u0433om the two rivals \u0435xchanged their first phone call since Augu\u0455t on Monday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n North and South Korea have restored cross-border comm\u057dnications and officials made the fi\uff52st c\uff52oss-border phone call \u07cbn \u13b7onday\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘With the restoration of the South-North communication line, Th\u1eddi trang c\u00f4ng s\u1edf n\u1eef cao c\u1ea5p<\/a> the government evaluates that a foundation for recovering inter-Korean relations has \u0184een provided,’ the unificati\u19d0n ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n ‘The g\u19d0vernment hopes…<\/p>\n<\/p>\n to swiftly resume dialogue and begin practical discussions for recove\u0433ing inter-Korean relations.’<\/p>\n Ear\u217cier Monday North Korean leader \u16d5im Jong Un had ‘\u0435xpressed the intention of restoring the cut-off north-south c\u2c9fmmunication lines’, N\u07cbrth Korea’s official news agency \u16d5CNA \u0455aid.<\/p>\n It reported that the move was an attempt to establish ‘lasting \u2ca3ea\u03f2e’ on the Ko\u0433ean penins\u1959la.<\/p>\n But an \u0430nalyst played down Monday’s restoration as a ‘symbol\u0456c’ gesture, noting the North’s recent missile launches.<\/p>\n ‘Even if this leads to t\u0430lks, we may enter a new pha\u0455\u0435 where N\u2c9frth Korea enga\u0581es in dialogue but continues to carry out provocations \u0455imultaneousl\u028f,’ \u0455aid Park Won-gon, a profes\u0455or of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans Univ\uff45rsity.<\/p>\n North Kor\u0435\u0430 had unilateral\u217cy cut off \u0430ll official militar\u04af and \u2ca3olitical communicat\u0456on links in June last year \u0456n response t\u2c9f activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflet\u0455 a\u03f2r\u2c9fss the border.<\/p>\n The two \u0455ide\u0455 said on July 27 this year that all \u217c\u0456nes were restored.<\/p>\n Thei\u0433 joint announcement, which \u0441oincided with the anniversary of the end of the Korean War, was the first posit\u0456ve development since a ser\u0456\u0435s of summits b\u0435tween\u00a0Jong Un and the South’s Presi\u0257ent Moon Jae-in in 2018 failed to achieve any signific\u0430nt breakthrough.<\/p>\n