While North Korea’s successive weapons tests and joint exercises carried out by the South Korea-US alliance in the region increased the tension on the Korean Peninsula, a surprise move came from Pyongyang. South Korea’s Unification Ministry announced that North Korea did not respond to routine phone calls made twice a day, at 09:00 and 17:00 local time, for 4 consecutive days in order to keep the communication channels between the two countries open.
Koo Byoung-sam, spokesperson of the Ministry of Unification of South Korea, stated that the government will follow the situation and give the necessary reaction, “It will not take long for us to take our official stance.” South Korea’s Ministry of Defense also announced that calls made over the military line remained unanswered for 4 days.
REASON UNKNOWN
It is considered that the last step of North Korea, which is not yet known why it did not respond to the calls, is a reaction to the joint military exercises of the Seoul-Washington alliance in the region. There are concerns that the end of regular contact between the two countries could pave the way for new military tensions.
NOT THE FIRST
Routine phone calls between the two countries had been interrupted before for different reasons. Pyongyang had left Seoul’s calls unanswered last June as a result of technical glitches believed to be caused by heavy rains. In 2021, North Korea temporarily remained indifferent to calls to protest South Korean activists’ anti-Pyongyang flyer campaign and joint exercises of the Seoul-Washington alliance.
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