Korean Peninsula Tensions: Two sides test hotline amid high hopes of tensions easing

World
Europe

The "South-North Direct Telephone" line, may be the most important hotline in the world. It allows for direct talks between the South Korean government and the DPRK. The two sides began using the hotline again at the beginning of this year, after it was cut in February 2016 reviving hopes of finding a peaceful resolution to tensions on the Korean Peninsula. CGTN's Yang Zhao has the story.

One of the most dangerous borders on the planet. Soldiers from South Korea and the DPRK stand with live ammunition and stare at each other over the border, inside the heavily fortified demilitarized zone in Panmunjom village.

Every weekday inside the zone, an official from South Korea will sit in a building called Freedom House, pick up the green phone and call to a similar desk in the DPRK's Panmungak office, which is just 100 meters away. If there is a call incoming from the north, they pick up the red phone.

Installed in 1971, the South-North Direct Telephone line has long been the most important method of communication between the two neighbors, who are still technically at war.

Communication was frequent in 1972, in the 1990s and the early 2000s.

Today there are 33 phone lines between the two Koreas, including five daily lines, 21 for inter-Korean talks, two for air traffic issues, two for maritime issues, and three for joint economic cooperation.

But at times of increasing tension, the phone may not be answered.

By the end of last year, the hotline had been cut 6 times. The latest cut occurred in February 2016 after Seoul suspended a joint economic project in the Kaesong industrial zone over Pyongyang's nuclear tests.

The situation changed 5 days ago when the two sides again tested their hotline. The DPRK's leader Kim Jong Un said in his New Year speech that he was "open to dialogue" and wanted to send a team to the Winter Olympics in the South next month.