Koreas restore communication channels, agree to improve ties

Seoul, Jul 27 (AP):
The leaders of North and South Korea restored suspended communication channels between them and agreed to improve ties, both governments said Tuesday, amid a two and half year stalemate in US-led diplomacy aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear weapons. While the move could certainly help ease animosities on the Korean Peninsula, it’s unclear whether Pyongyang would go as far as to revive previous vigorous cooperation programs with Seoul and get back to the nuclear talks with Washington. Some experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un merely intends to burnish his international image or use South Korea as leverage ahead of a potential resumption of talks with the US
Since April, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in exchanged personal letters several times and decided to normalize the cross-border communication channels as a first step toward improving relations, Moon’s office said.
The two leaders agreed to ‘restore mutual confidence and develop their relationships again as soon as possible,’ senior Blue House official Park Soo Hyun said in a televised briefing. Park said the two Koreas subsequently reopened communication channels on Tuesday.
North Korea’s state media quickly confirmed the South Korean announcement.
‘Now, the whole Korean nation desires to see the North-South relations recovered from setback and stagnation as early as possible,’ the official Korean Central News Agency said. ‘In this regard, the top leaders of the North and the South agreed to make a big stride in recovering the mutual trust and promoting reconciliation by restoring the cutoff inter-Korean communication liaison lines through the recent several exchanges of personal letters.’
Last year, North Korea cut off all communication channels with South Korea in protest of what it called South Korea’s failure to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their
border. An angry North Korea later blew up an empty, South Korean-built liaison office just north of the countries’ border.
Many experts said the provocative North Korean action signaled the North had grown frustrated that Seoul has failed to revive lucrative inter-Korean economic projects and persuade the US to ease international sanctions on the North.
Moon, who espouses greater reconciliation with North Korea, earlier shuttled between Pyongyang and Washington to facilitate a first summit between Kim and then-President Donald Trump. But North Korea abruptly turned the cold shoulder to Moon after a second Kim-Trump summit fell apart in early 2019 due to disputes over US-led sanctions.
Since taking office in January, the administration of President Joe Biden has called on North Korea to return to the talks. But North Korea has insisted it won’t rejoin the talks unless the US withdraws its hostile policy against the North, an apparent reference to the sanctions.
Some experts earlier said North Korea may be compelled to reach out to the US or South Korea if its economic difficulties worsen. Mismanagement, storm damage and border shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic have further depleted North Korea’s broken economy and Kim in recent speeches called for his people to brace for prolonged COVID-19 restrictions.

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