Inter-Korean Military Hotline
Seoul and Pyongyang tested military hotline communications in the West Sea region on September 6. The Ministry of Unification announced on that day that the hotline was opened at 10:51am.
The testing was a follow-up measure of the agreement between the two Koreas made on the preceding day at the Inter-Korean Joint Committee for the Kaesong Industrial Complex. It has been 163 days since the hotline was shut down by North Korea in opposition to the Key Resolve on March 27 this year.
Under the circumstances, the efforts for the restoration of the Kaesong Industrial Complex are expected to pick up some speed. With emergency measures having been made available through the inter-Korean communication channel, Seoul is going to allow South Korean workers to stay in the industrial complex soon. “Once the military hotline, which is run around the clock unlike the Panmunjom communication channel, is restored, South Korean people can stay in the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” said Park Su-jin, deputy spokesperson of the Ministry of Unification, adding, “The Korea Water Resources Corporation, the Korea Electric Power Corporation, and the like will move to the complex after the restoration of the hotline to check up on the facilities.”
Experts are predicting that the complex will restart the operation late this month. “It is expected that the operation will be resumed between September 23 and 24, after the Thanksgiving Holidays and before the meeting of separated families scheduled for September 25,” said professor Lim Eul-chul at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Kyungnam University.