North and South Korea plan to open new, updated hotlines between their militaries next week to facilitate border crossings, an official said yesterday.
The announcement reflected cooperation between the sides just a day after the North threatened South Korean ships with possible attacks. The hotlines serve as a key mode of communication between military officials from the two Koreas, which technically remain at war because the 1950 to 1953 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
Crossings at the border mostly involve officials and workers from the South crossing to the North to a joint industrial complex.
The divided countries have nearly finished connecting fiber-optic cables across their heavily fortified border and will test the nine communication channels later this week before formally opening them next week, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
The move comes two months after the South provided the North with communication equipment and other materials to help its neighbor modernize the hotlines.
The fiber-optic cables will be laid near nine outdated copper cable hotlines, some of which the North cut off last year, citing technical problems, before restoring them, the ministry said.
The communication lines are likely to “improve convenience of our people’s border crossings,” allowing the two Koreas to exchange information quickly and efficiently, Chun told reporters.
The industrial complex, which combines South Korean capital and technology with cheap North Korean labor, is the most prominent symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. About 110 South Korean factories employ some 40,000 North Korean workers there.
On Monday, the North threatened South Korean ships with possible attacks by designating a firing zone along their disputed sea border. The western maritime boundary has long been considered a flash point between the two Koreas.
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