North Korea restored dormant communication hotlines with South Korea in a small, fragile reconciliation step Monday in an apparent hard push to win outside concessions with a mix of conciliatory gestures and missile tests.
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The hotlines are phone and fax channels that the Koreas use set up meetings, arrange border crossings and avoid accidental clashes. They've been largely stalled for more than a year as the North cut off them in protest of South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. Communications were briefly revived for about two weeks this summer, but North Korea later refused to exchange messages again after Seoul staged annual military drills with Washington that Pyongyang views as an invasion rehearsal.
It's unclear how substantially the move will improve ties between the Koreas, as Pyongyang has a history of using the hotlines as a bargaining chip in dealings with Seoul. It often unilaterally suspended then reactivated them when it needed better relations with its southern neighbor.
On a separate military channel, the Koreas exchanged information about fishing activities along their disputed westerns sea boundary, where several inter-Korean bloody naval battles have occurred in previous years, to prevent similar skirmishes, Seoul's Defense Ministry said. A ministry statement said Seoul hopes the hotlines' restoration would help reduce tensions on the peninsula.
