North Korea Unreachable for Four Days... Government Weighs Unilateral Communication Blockade

Contact Office and Military Communication Line Remain Unresponsive from the 7th
Ministry of Unification "Considering Response... Won't Take Long"

North Korea has not responded for the fourth consecutive day to the regular calls on the inter-Korean joint liaison office and military communication lines. The government is focusing on the possibility of North Korea's 'unilateral cutoff' and is reviewing countermeasures.

According to the Ministry of Unification and Ministry of National Defense on the 10th, North Korea did not respond to either the inter-Korean joint liaison office channel or the military communication line on that day. The two Koreas regularly conduct opening calls at 9 a.m. and closing calls at 5 p.m. on weekdays through the joint liaison office channel. The military authorities also conduct opening calls at 9 a.m. and closing calls at 4 p.m. daily via the military communication line. North Korea has been unreachable on both communication channels since the 7th.

The scene of the demolition of the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office revealed by North Korea in June 2020. / Photo by Chosun Central News Agency

At a regular briefing held at the Government Seoul Office on the same day, Unification Ministry spokesperson Ku Byung-sam stated, "Over the weekend, the North did not respond to the military communication line, and today it also did not respond to calls on the liaison office and military communication line," adding, "We are currently placing weight on the possibility of the North's unilateral cutoff." He continued, "We will monitor the situation and review countermeasures," and added, "It will not take long to make an official statement."

North Korea has completely failed to respond to regular calls on the joint liaison office and military communication lines since the 7th. This is the first time in about six months since October 4 last year that calls between the joint liaison offices have not connected, and it is also the first time since then that contact has been completely cut off for more than a day. At that time, calls were only disconnected in the morning, and it was presumed to be a temporary outage due to technical issues on the North Korean side.

Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office Contact
Photo by Ministry of Unification

Some speculate that this might again be due to technical problems, but as North Korea's non-response continues, there is growing weight to the possibility that it is a reaction to a series of events such as the joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises and the publication of the North Korean Human Rights Report. In particular, since North Korea recently referred to the joint exercises as a 'confrontation war against the South,' it is believed that this reflects an internal situation of fostering hostility toward the South.

In the past, North Korea has arbitrarily cut off communication lines in protest against the distribution of anti-North Korean leaflets or joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises, only to restore them later. In June 2020, North Korea cut off communication lines, including the liaison office channel, citing leaflet distribution as the reason, and restored them in July the following year after 13 months. After that, it did not respond to regular calls for a month, using the pre-exercise of the South Korea-U.S. joint military drills as an excuse, but restored contact again after 55 days.

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