Will North Korea Respond Next Week? Attention Focused on 'Restoration of Communication Hotline'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] North Korean Workers' Party General Secretary Kim Jong-un has expressed a policy to restore communication lines earlier this month, drawing attention to whether North Korea will respond to South Korea's call requests sometime next week.

According to the Ministry of Unification on the 2nd, North Korea did not respond to South Korea's contact during two opening and closing calls at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on the 1st.

South Korea has been attempting calls to the North twice daily at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., but North Korea has consistently ignored these contacts since early August, citing the joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises as the reason.

Accordingly, interest is focused on whether North Korea will respond to South Korea's calls next week. Since General Secretary Kim directly announced the policy to "restore communication lines in early October" during his policy speech at the Supreme People's Assembly on the 29th of last month, there is a high possibility that the communication lines will be reconnected as early as next week.

However, in his keynote speech, General Secretary Kim stated, "Whether inter-Korean relations recover and develop to a new stage or continue to deteriorate as they are depends on the attitude of the South Korean authorities," placing the responsibility for improving inter-Korean relations on the South Korean government's stance, so variables still remain.

North Korea is pursuing a dual strategy by continuing missile provocations while simultaneously releasing progressive statements and speeches toward the South, such as restoring communication lines and holding inter-Korean summits. This is closely related to North Korea's demand that South Korea withdraw its "dual attitude and hostile perspective." They want their missile launches to be recognized not as provocations but as strengthening national defense capabilities.

Although such missile provocations are expected to continue, experts predict that if the South Korean government continues to define North Korea's missile launches as "provocations," future inter-Korean dialogue will face difficulties. Jeong Seong-jang, head of the North Korea Research Center at the Sejong Institute, said, "If South Korea continues to criticize missile development as 'provocations,' inter-Korean relations will inevitably worsen politically."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.