Koreas normalize military hotline

By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea reopened Wednesday their military hotline in a western district that was disconnected by Pyongyang more than a year ago due to technical problems, Seoul officials 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 hardline 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 channel, Seoul had notified Pyongyang of tourists visiting
the North's scenic Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast, a joint project that
was suspended after a shooting incident last year. The western channel was used
for communication regarding South Korean workers commuting to a joint industrial
park in the North's western border town of Kaesong. The naval authorities in the
Yellow Sea also communicated through the western channel to prevent recurrence of
bloody clashes of 1999 and 2002, which claimed scores of lives on both sides.
North Korea suspended the western-side line in May last year, citing technical
glitches in aging optical cables. Pyongyang demanded replacements from Seoul at
that time, but new cables were not provided.
The spokesman said the restored hotline still uses old cables, and three of the
six phone and fax lines there are not working due to technical problems.
"On the matter of optical cable assistance, there should be a separate review or
consultations with the North," Chun said.
Pyongyang severed the eastern 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.
The South's unification minister played down what appeared to be wooing gestures
by Pyongyang, characterizing the change of attitude as "tactical" rather than
fundamental. Pyongyang is not altering its basic stance on its nuclear weapons as
long as it refuses to return to the six-party denuclearization talks that also
involve South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, Unification
Minister Hyun In-taek said.
"I don't see the North's moves as a sign they have altered their stance. The
measures have only returned things back to normal," Hyun said in a meeting with
lawmakers.
Thawing political relations were increasing humanitarian aid operations in the
North. Several activists from the non-governmental Nanum International and the
Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul traveled to Pyongyang on Wednesday to discuss
their medical aid projects.
A day earlier, the Gyeonggi provincial government sent 4,200 tons of corn aid to
the North.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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