SEOUL – North Korea has reopened a hotline to South Korea, almost two years after it was disabled on the orders of leader Kim Jong-un.
South Korea confirmed it had received a call from the North at 15:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Wednesday.
The North Korean leader had earlier said he was open to dialogue with Seoul and to sending a team to the Winter Olympics in the South next month.
Officials from both countries spoke several times on Wednesday (Jan 3) to conduct technical checks before agreeing to stop for the day, according to Mr Lee Yeon Du, an official with South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
President Moon Jae In has proposed holding talks on Jan 9 at the border village of Panmunjom, which would be the first formal gathering between the two sides since 2015.
The move shows further progress after Mr Kim called for improved relations with South Korea in a New Year’s Day address. Tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme had threatened to hang over the Games in Pyeongchang, a city about 80 kilometres from the border dividing the Korean Peninsula.
The detente between the two Koreas progressed even as Mr Trump continued a war of words with Mr Kim, who warned on Monday that the nuclear button is “always on my desk”.
The US President responded on Tuesday night, saying on Twitter that he had “a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
While defence analysts believe Mr Kim has as many as 60 nuclear bombs and missiles that can reach Washington, doubts remain over North Korea’s ability to miniaturise a warhead and deliver it safely across the Pacific.
