MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2023) North Korea has not been responding to regular calls from South Korea via a military communication line for a third consecutive day for unknown reasons, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Sunday, citing the country's defense ministry officials.
The two countries are supposed to hold routine calls twice a day � in the morning and in the afternoon � via military and liaison hotlines. On Friday, the South Korean Unification Ministry said that the daily call via both lines was not made. Seoul said there were no problems on its end.
On Sunday, South Korea's calls at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. (00:00 and 07:00 GMT) via the military line went unanswered, Yonhap said, citing defense ministry officials. The inter-Korean liaison channel does not operate on weekends, the report added.
Tensions appear to be mounting on the Korean Peninsula as the United States and South Korea held large-scale drills, which Pyongyang viewed as a preparation for invasion.
The two Koreas have temporarily halted cross-border communication lines several times in the past. In June 2022 Pyongyang stopped answering calls due to technical glitches caused by rain. In June 2020, Pyongyang cut off communications with its southern neighbor and blew up the joint liaison office in the border town of Kaesong, in response to the campaign by North Korean defectors to fly propaganda leaflets on balloons across the border. In July 2021, the North restored the communication channel, only to cut it again in August, before finally mending it at the direction of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in October 2021.
