North Korea remained unresponsive to regular contact via the inter-Korean military hotline for the second day Saturday, military officials said.
The North did not respond to the regular morning and afternoon calls between the two sides, the officials said, after daily calls through the military line and another cross-border liaison channel went unanswered the previous day.
The two Koreas typically hold phone calls twice a day using the joint liaison office channel and their military channel. While the liaison office channel operates only on weekdays, the military channel also conducts calls on weekends.
“Regular calls aren’t being made due to an unspecified reason from the North’s side,” a military official said. “We will monitor the situation, leaving all possibilities open, including a (technical) problem in the North’s line.”
The suspension comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of North Korea’s recent weapons tests in protest of joint military drills between South Korea and the United States.
Earlier in the day, the North’s state media reported that the country staged an underwater detonation test of its Haeil-2 nuclear-capable attack drone earlier this week.
Daily phone calls via inter-Korean communication channels have previously gone unanswered due to technical reasons. Last June, Pyongyang did not respond to a regular hotline call apparently due to technical glitches caused by heavy rains.
In July 2021, the North restored the inter-Korean hotline, about a year after it severed the contact channel in protest against Seoul activists’ leaflet campaigns critical of Pyongyang. The liaison line was again cut off in August that year and restored later.
Source: Yonhap News Agency