North Korea has not responded to the regularly-held inter-Korean calls for the third consecutive day, elevating tensions on the peninsula and raising concerns about the stability of the region.
Officials in North Korea were unresponsive to the regular phone communication between the two sides on Sunday, Yonhap News reported, after calls through the military line went unanswered on the previous two days.
The two Koreas typically hold phone calls twice a day though the two lines, including a cross-border liaison channel, during the week, while the military channel is used on weekends.
South Korea defense ministry officials said they reached out to the North through the military hotline at 9 a.m. Sunday but the calls went unanswered, according to Yonhap. The suspension of communication comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea’s recent weapons tests, which were seen as a response to joint military drills between South Korea and the US.
North Korean state media reported Saturday that the country staged an underwater detonation test of its “Haeil-2” nuclear-capable attack drone last week. The drone cruised off North Korea’s east coast for more than 71 hours before its test warhead was detonated underwater, KCNA said Saturday.
North Korea’s lack of response to the daily calls may be a precursor to further military exercises by the regime. In August 2017, North Korea did not respond to South Korea’s request for inter-Korean military talks a few days before it launched a ballistic missile that flew over Japan.
The inter-Korean hotline was restored in July 2021, after being ignored for about a year by the North in protest of Seoul activists’ leaflet campaigns critical of Pyongyang. Daily phone call disruptions, however, have not always resulted in elevated tensions. In June 2022, North Korean did not respond to a regular hotline call, apparently due to technical glitches caused by heavy rains.