North, South Korea reconnect hotlines as activists call for peace

Frank Smith
Press TV, Seoul

North Korea and South Korea have reconnected severed hotline communications. This follows the exchange of letters between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The move comes on the 68th anniversary of the signing the armistice to suspend hostilities of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a war cemetery in Pyongyang to mark the 68th anniversary of the armistice. Meanwhile Tuesday, North Korean media and South Korea’s presidential office announced the two states had reconnected previously severed communication hotlines.

The reconnection of the inter-Korean hotlines follows a previously undisclosed exchange of letters between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, beginning in April.

But peace on the Korean peninsula will require a shift in US behavior, say activists who gathered online to call for a peace treaty to officially end the Korean War.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has said its open to negotiations with North Korea, with no pre-conditions, although US lead sanctions on Pyongyang remain in place.

For South Korean President Moon Jae-in the reconnection of the hotlines with North Korea represents a small victory. President Moon has long campaigned for peace with North Korea, and this engagement marks perhaps the last time he can make some achievement in inter-Korean relations, before he leaves office in March of next year.

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