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A South Korean military officer speaks over the phone with a North Korean military counterpart on Monday morning via an inter-Korean direct communication line. Direct communication lines in the inter-Korean liaison office and military communication lines along the eastern and western coasts were restored that day, allowing for landline phone communication and document exchanges via fax. (provided by the Ministry of National Defense)

The direct lines of communication between South and North Korea are back online after a 55-day hiatus. This came five days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced that the communication lines would be restored in early October during a policy address on Wednesday, during the fifth session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly.

This is the first sign of a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations, which have been at an impasse for nearly a year and fourth months, since June 2020. That was when North Korea cut the lines of communication (June 9) and detonated the joint liaison office in Kaesong (June 16) in response to propaganda leaflets that were being floated over the border by North Korean defector groups in South Korea.

The South Korean government faces the challenge of building momentum for restarting the Korean Peninsula peace process, which could involve improving inter-Korean relations as a step toward North Korea-US dialogue.

North Korea’s state-run newspaper the Rodong Sinmun reported on Monday that “the relevant organs decided to restore all the north-south communication lines from 9:00 on Oct. 4 true to his intention,” referring to Kim Jong-un.

The article was simply called a “KCNA Report,” with KCNA standing for Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification and Ministry of National Defense reported that initial and final phones calls went through at the inter-Korean liaison office and on military lines on the western and eastern coasts on Monday morning and afternoon. “All functions are operating as normal,” officials said.

North Korea had unilaterally severed the direct lines of communication between the two sides on June 9, 2020, during a period of high tensions over propaganda pamphlets being dropped in the North. Those lines were restored 413 days later on July 27 — the anniversary of the armistice that ended the hostilities of the Korean War — after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un exchanged personal letters.

But just 14 days later, on Aug. 10, North Korea failed to answer the final phone call in the afternoon following a statement by Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, in which she criticized South Korea and the US’ joint military exercises. The phone line remained dead until now.

“The [South] Korean authorities should make positive efforts to put the north-south ties on a right track and settle the important tasks which must be prioritized to open up the bright prospect in the future, bearing deep in mind the meaning of the restoration of communication lines,” the KCNA report said.

North Korea’s reference to “important tasks which must be prioritized” could be taken to mean two things. In principle, it refers to Kim’s “invariable demand” for South Korea to have “respect for each other and withdraw the [. . .] unfair and double-dealing attitude and hostile viewpoint and policies towards the other side.” These are generic and strategic requests that involve not only South Korea but also the US.

Therefore, it is necessary to examine the “principled matters for the fundamental settlement of the north-south relations” that Kim Jong-un mentioned in his speech. Those can be summed up in three requests: take actions over words, settle the “essential” matters, and “sincerely” implement inter-Korean declarations.

Such requests should prove relatively less difficult to find points of compromise and make headway on than total retraction of the “double-dealing attitude and hostile viewpoint and policies.”

Combining these two, North Korea has apparently changed its approach, with improving relations with South Korea being prioritized over improving those with the US. As such, it wants South Korea to persuade the US to take corresponding measures for progress toward denuclearization, including sanctions relief.

In a statement on Aug. 25, Kim Yo-jong mentioned the possibility of “constructive discussions” of “the reestablishment of the north-south joint liaison office and the north-south summit, to say nothing of the timely declaration of the significant termination of the war.” But North Korea will not apparently take action until it concludes that South Korea is capable of effectively making its case to the US.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said that the reactivation of the inter-Korean lines of communication lays the groundwork for stability on the Korean Peninsula and for restoring inter-Korean relations.

“We hope that the stable operation of the inter-Korean communication lines will lead to a quick resumption of dialogue and the initiation of meaningful discussion concerning restoring inter-Korean relations through implementing the inter-Korean agreements and about establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula and continuing progress in those areas,” the ministry added.

“We expect that the restoration of the military lines of communication between the South and North Korean military authorities will lead to a meaningful relaxation of military tensions on the Korean Peninsula in the future,” South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said.

The various appeals and aspirations in these official responses boil down to the hope that restoring the direct lines of communication will lead to dialogue between the two governments. If North Korea can get through the 76th anniversary of the establishment of the WPK on Oct. 10 without any strategic military action, the two sides could start looking for ways to ease into dialogue.

There’s considerable pessimism that North Korea could make an about-face and cut the communication lines at any time, as it did just 14 days after restoring them this past summer. That pessimism is reinforced by North Korea’s mention of “the important tasks which must be prioritized.”

But several circumstances suggest North Korea is unlikely to flip-flop on the communication lies as it did this summer. Notably, the communication lines were restored after Kim Jong-un personally promised to do so in an official speech. Furthermore, his promise was communicated to the North Korean public through the Rodong Sinmun.

Neither North Korea’s previous restoration of the communication lines on July 27 nor its unilateral refusal to answer the phone starting on Aug. 10 were reported by the Rodong Sinmun. The previous time the issue was covered in the Rodong Sinmun was on June 9, 2020, when the North severed the inter-Korean communication lines over the propaganda leaflets and declared that South Korean affairs should be regarded as enemy affairs. The implication at the time was that North Korea was temporarily halting engagement with the South.

Under that reading, the restoration of the inter-Korean communication lines comes after a hiatus not of 55 days, but of 482 days. That’s why we should keep examining the motivation for North Korea’s restoring the communication lines.

It’s in this same light that we should assess Kim Jong-un’s use of the expression “protecting the peace and stability of the region” in the first cable in two years to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]