(LEAD) Koreas normalize military hotline

(ATTN: UPDATES with background, no plan to resume cargo train service)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea reopened their military hotline
in a western district on Wednesday more than a year after Pyongyang suspended it
due to technical problems, a Seoul official said.

The direct communication channel, operated by the military authorities of the two
sides, "began normal operations today after a test yesterday," Unification
Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
The move follows North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's meeting with a major South
Korean investor, Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-un, last month and their
agreement to restore sagging inter-Korean ventures and lift border restrictions.
On Tuesday, South Koreans' trips to the North returned to normal as Pyongyang
lifted stringent rules imposed in December to protest Seoul's hard-line policy.
The Koreas have operated two major military hotlines -- one in the west since
2002 and the other in the east since 2003 -- to assure the safety of South
Koreans traveling to North Korea over the heavily fortified border. Through the
eastern line, South Korea had notified the North of tourists visiting the North's
scenic Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast. The western channel was used for
communications regarding South Korean workers and cargo trucks commuting to a
joint industrial park in the North's western border town of Kaesong.
North Korea suspended the western-side channel in May last year, citing technical
glitches in aging optical cables. Pyongyang had demanded replacements from Seoul,
but the new cables were not provided.
The spokesman said the restored hotline still uses old cables, and "for the
matter of optical cable assistance, there should be a separate review or
consultations with the North."
Pyongyang severed the eastern-line channel in December and restored it last month
as part of a series of fence-mending moves.
North Korea had also agreed to resume cargo train services across the western
border, but Seoul has no immediate plan to do so, the spokesman said. The railway
service started in 2007 to deliver raw materials to the Kaesong park, but cargo
traffic volume is currently too low to require the use of trains, he said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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