N.Korea remains unresponsive to Seoul's hotline calls

Seoul, Sep 27 North Korea remained unresponsive to South Korea's calls via liaison and military hotlines on Monday despite cautious optimism created after the sister of Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong-un said the two Koreas could discuss improvement in long-strained relations.

"North Korea did not answer our opening call through the South-North joint liaison office at 9 a.m.," Yonhap News Agency quoted a Unification Ministry official said.

A official also said a call via the military hotline went unanswered.

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, issued two statements last week in which she said the two Koreas could discuss improvement in inter-Korean relations, re-establishment of the Kaesong liaison office and even a summit on conditions that Seoul drops its double-standard and hostile attitudes against it.

The statements followed President Moon Jae-in's offer for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War in his UN speech.

The Unification Ministry saw Kim's statements as positive and expressed hope for the resumption of cross-border communication and dialogue.

Inter-Korean relations have remained in a deadlock since the no-deal summit between the US and North Korea in early 2019.

The ties chilled further after North Korea blew up the Kaesong liaison office and cut off all cross-border communication lines in protest of anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from the South.

The lines were briefly back online in late July but the North has not answered Seoul's regular calls twice a day again as it bristled at joint military drills by South Korea and the US