South Korea and North Korea agree to 'restore mutual trust', reopens suspended hotline

Seoul’s presidential Blue House on July 27 said that South and North Korea have restored their once-severed hotlines as part of efforts by the two countries to rebuild strained ties. According to North Korea’s state media outlet, KCNA, all inter-Korean communication channels resumed operation at 10am (local time) on Tuesday in line with an agreement between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In a separate statement, Moon’s press secretary, Park Soo-hyun also said that the South and North Korean leaders have exchanged multiple letters since April and agreed to reconnect hotlines. 

In a televised briefing, Park said that Kim and Moon have explored ways to recover relations by exchanging letters on several occasions. He said that the two leaders have agreed to restore hotlines as the first step for that process. Park added that Kim and Moon have also agreed to regain trust as soon as possible and foster progress on relations again. North Korean media outlet, on the other hand, touted reopening of the hotlines as “a big stride in recovering the mutual trust and promoting reconciliation”. 

It is worth mentioning that North Korea had cut the hotlines in June 2020 as cross-border ties soured after a failed summit in 2019 between Kim and former US President Donald Trump, which Moon had offered to mediate. The South Korean leader had called for a revival of the hotline and talks, and pinned hopes on US President Joe Biden to restart negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes. Now, despite a two-and-a-half-year-stalemate in US-led diplomacy, the two leaders agreed to "restore mutual trust" and develop the relationship between the two nations "as soon as possible,” Park said. 

Termination of North Korea coordination group 

Meanwhile, last month, South Korea and the US agreed to end the controversial, more than two-year-old working group forum on North Korea over criticisms that the group had run afoul of Seoul’s stance on North Korean policy. Biden’s point man for North Korea, Sung Kim’s appealed to Seoul for the resumption of dialogue with Pyongyang’s contumacious regime, but his South Korean counterpart Noh Kyu-Duk suggested terminating the North Korea working group. Kyu-Duk implored that Seoul and Washington look towards strengthening coordination at other levels as the former two decided to scrap the joint consultative channel established in November 2018, according to the ministry of South Korea. 

The North Korea working group was a consultative mechanism for coordination between the US and South Korea for denuclearisation of the recalcitrant North Korean regime, sanctions enforcement and trade embargo, humanitarian aid, and inter-Korean projects. It had, however, ended up hampering progress on cross-border dialogue, mutual cooperation, and instead served as a hindrance to inter-Korean relations and continued stalemate in nuclear diplomacy as Pyongyang largely viewed the group operates in the national interest of the United States.

(Image: AP)