The Seoul–Pyongyang hotline, also known as the inter-Korean hotline, is a series of over 40

telephone line A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or oth ...

s that connect

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Most of them run through the Panmunjom Joint Security Area (JSA) within the

Korean Demilitarized Zone The Korean Demilitarized Zone () is a heavily militarized strip of land running across the Korea, Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in half. It wa ...

(DMZ) and are maintained by the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

Configuration

The border hotline in the Panmunjom area has terminals located in the Freedom House at the South Korean side and in the Panmungak building at the North Korean side. The terminals consist of a computer screen with red and green telephone handsets. In total, there are 33 telecommunication lines between North and South Korea that run through Panmunjom. Five of them are used for daily communications, 21 for negotiations between the two countries, two for handling air traffic, two for sea transport and three for economic co-operation. Additionally, there are 15 telephone lines which run outside Panmunjom because of geographical reasons. These include lines between military authorities and for the inter-Korean railroad between Dorasan Station in the South and Panmun Station in the North.Electrospaces.net
The hotlines between North and South Korea
February 14, 2018

History

The first hotline was established in September 1971 to allow the

and South Korean Red Crosses to negotiate. Further lines were agreed to, in principle, at the 4 July 1972 Joint Communiqué between the two states and began operation on 18 August 1972. More lines were established throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The hotlines were unilaterally disconnected by North Korea eight times: in 1976, 1980, 1996, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2021. Each time, the lines were reconnected again after some time. In 2013, North Korea disconnected the hotline between 11 March and 3 July, when it withdrew from the 1953 armistice and voided non-aggression pacts with South Korea. This was in response to rising tension between North Korea, South Korea, and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. According to a government official from South Korea on 11 March 2013 a call was placed "at 9 a.m. and there was no response". North Korea reopened the hotline on July 7, 2013. In February 2016, North Korea cut off the hotline communications after South Korea suspended the cooperation between both countries in the

Kaesong Industrial Region The Kaesŏng Industrial Region (KIR) or Kaesŏng Industrial Zone (KIZ) is a special administrative industrial region of North Korea (DPRK). It was formed in 2002 from part of the Kaesŏng Directly-Governed City. On 10 February 2016, it was tem ...

as a response to a nuclear weapons test by the North. After Kim Jong-un's New Year's address, the hotline was reopened again on January 3, 2018. On April 20, 2018, a hotline connecting President

Moon Jae-in Moon Jae-in (, ; born January 24, 1953) is a South Korean politician and former lawyer who served as the 12th president of South Korea from 2017 to 2022. Before his presidency, he served as the senior secretary for civil affairs and the Chief ...

to North Korean leader

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong Un (born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has served as supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim ...

was installed, one week ahead of their historic April 27 summit. The direct communication line was set up between Moon's office at Cheong Wa Dae and Kim's office at the State Affairs Commission. In September 2021, North Korean leader

offered to restore the Inter-Korean hotline after it severed the connection in early August 2021, in protest against joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises. On 4 October 2021 South Korea’s Unification Ministry confirmed the restoration of the hotline, saying that it "laid the ground for bringing the relations between the two Koreas back on track".

References

External links

The hotlines between North and South Korea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seoul-Pyongyang hotline Communications in Korea North Korea–South Korea relations 1971 establishments in North Korea 1971 establishments in South Korea Communication circuits Hotlines between countries

Configuration

History

See also

References

External links