[Yonhap Photo]
SEOUL, Jan. 03 (Aju News) -- Amid high expectations on the resumption of severed inter-Korean dialogue, North Korea reopened a closed cross-border hotline Wednesday to discuss its participation in next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Under an order from leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea promised to open the channel of communication in the border truce village of Panmunjom at 3:30 pm (0630 GMT), said the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRK), Pyongyang's state body in charge of cross-border affairs.
"We will be in close contact with the South Korean side in a serious and sincere manner with the will of our supreme leadership," CPRK head Ri Son-gwon said in a statement published by a state radio station.
At a designated time, a cross-border call was made to reactivate the channel of dialogue between South and North Korean liaison offices in Panjumjon in the middle of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which bisects the Korean peninsula, according to the South's unification ministry.
In February 2016, Pyongyang closed the Panmunjom hotline, which has been used for inter-Korean contact and exchanges since the three-year Korean conflict ended in 1953.
In his statement, Ri said the dialogue channel in Panmunjom would be used to discuss "working-level issues" related to the dispatch of a North Korean delegation to the Winter Games to be held in South Korea's eastern ski resort of Pyeongchang in February.
Kim said in his New Year's message that he is willing to send a delegation to Pyeongchang, calling for urgent inter-Korean talks. He also suggested the two Koreas should seek an "epochal" change in 2018 by easing tensions.
In response, South Korea proposed high-level talks on January 9 in Panmunjom, suggesting North Korea should first restore the Panmunjom hotline. However, North Korea did not mention Seoul's proposal for high-level talks, saying only its leader welcomed a positive gesture from South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Kim was quoted as emphasizing that improving inter-Korean relations depends "entirely" on how the two Koreas will handle the pending issue in a responsible manner.
Relations were strained in 2010 when Seoul blamed a North Korean submarine for torpedoing the warship Cheonan. The incident froze cross-border exchanges and trade. In November the same year, the North shelled a front-line island, killing four South Koreans and briefly triggering concerns of a full-scale conflict.
In February 2016, North Korea cut off cross-border hotlines in Panmunjom and other areas after South Korea shut down an inter-Korean industrial estate in retaliation for the North's ballistic missile and nuclear tests.
The industrial estate in the North's border city of Kaesong once hosted about 120 South Korean firms employing more than 50,000 North Korean workers. The Kaesong complex, a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation and reconciliation, was considered a rare legitimate source of hard currency for the impoverished North.
In closing the zone, Seoul accused Pyongyang of diverting income earned in the zone to leader's luxury life or weapons development. Moon has promised to reopen the Kaesong complex only if North Korea returns to the dialogue table on easing tensions.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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