SEUL, Apr 8 responds to calls from Seoul over the military line and also did not respond to attempts to contact the inter-Korean line, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Earlier, the Ministry of Unification of South Korea reported that on Friday morning, the daily call on the inter-Korean communication line was not made. The South Korean side confirmed the absence of problems on its part.
According to the agency, North Korea has not responded to military calls for two days.
The two countries usually call each other twice a day at 9.00 and 17.00 on both communication lines. The inter-Korean communication line operates only on weekdays, while the military also calls on weekends.
«Regular calls from the North are not being made for an unspecified reason. We will monitor the situation, leaving all possibilities open, including a technical problem on the North line,» a military source said. military official.
Recently, relations between the DPRK and South Korea have become more tense against the backdrop of large-scale military exercises held by the United States and South Korea for the first time in several years.
On Saturday morning, North Korean state media reported on the test of a Haeil-2 strike-type underwater unmanned system with a simulated nuclear warhead. A number of comments were also published condemning the teachings of South Korea and the United States, Washington's military cooperation with other countries within the framework of AUKUS.
Daily contacts through inter-Korean communication channels have been interrupted several times before. Last June, Pyongyang stopped answering calls due to technical glitches caused by the rainy season. In the summer of 2020, the DPRK, in protest against South Korean activists sending leaflets critical of Pyongyang to the DPRK, announced a complete severance of all lines of communication with the South, including military channels and a special line between the top leadership of the two countries. On June 16, the North blew up the inter-Korean coordination office in the Kaesong industrial complex. About a year later, the DPRK restored inter-Korean communication channels in July 2021. Communication was again interrupted in August of the same year and later restored in October at the direction of the leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un.