North Korea Refuses to Answer South Korean Military Hotline Calls Amid Tensions

A South Korean government official communicates with a North Korean officer during a phone call on the dedicated communications hotline at the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, on Jan. 3, 2018. South Korea Unification Ministry/Yonhap via AP

South Korea’s government stated on April 10 that North Korea has refused to answer its calls through both the joint liaison communication channel and the military hotline for a fourth day in a row.

The two Koreas typically hold phone calls twice per day through the inter-Korean liaison channel and the military hotline, except for weekends when calls from the liaison hotline aren’t scheduled.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification stated that it’s “highly likely” that North Korea has “unilaterally cut off communication lines” with Seoul, as the country has been unresponsive to its calls since April 7.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense stated that it attempted to contact North Korea through the military hotline at 9 a.m. (local time) on April 10, but the calls went unanswered, according to Yonhap News Agency.

“We will continue to closely monitor the situation and discuss further measures. However, it won’t take us long to make an official statement,” Koo Byoung-sam, the unification ministry’s spokesperson, told reporters.

Koo said North Korea had, in the past, severed the joint liaison channel with South Korea and then restored it when tensions subsided.

He cited an incident in 2020, when North Korea cut off the liaison channel over South Korean activists’ anti-Pyongyang leaflets. The line was later restored in June 2021 after both sides exchanged letters.

North Korea made a similar move in August 2021 in response to South Korea’s joint military exercises with the United States, although the channel was restored two months later, according to Koo.

“This is the first time that both channels of the military and the South-North Joint Liaison Office have been completely shut down for more than one day,” he said.

Reasons Behind North Korea’s Move

The unresponsiveness came as South Korea published its annual report documenting “gruesome” human rights abuses in North Korea, such as the execution of individuals caught watching South Korean videos.

North Korea had also condemned the expansion of U.S.–South Korea joint drills, which it views as a rehearsal for invasion, even though the United States and South Korea have stated that the drills were meant for defense.

“In 2020, the North was quite clear about the reasons it was angry, and Kim Yo Jong elaborated on the context,” Park Won-gon, a professor specializing in North Korean studies, told The Korea Times.

Kim Yo Jong is the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“But this time, the North has yet to clarify what made the regime cut the hotlines, although we can assume that it was due to the recent joint military exercise between South Korea and the U.S. and the repeated references to the North Korean human rights issue,” Park said.

South Korea disclosed its annual report on North Korea for the first time since the North Korea Human Rights Act was approved in 2016, marking a shift from the former Moon Jae-in administration, which kept such reports confidential in favor of North Korea’s relations.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said his administration aims to “fully expose” North Korea’s human rights violations to the international community, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Underwater Nuclear-Capable Drone

The United States, South Korea, and Japan conducted two-day anti-submarine exercises around the waters of South Korea’s Jeju Island on April 3 after North Korea claimed to have tested an underwater attack drone that’s capable of generating a “radioactive tsunami.”

An underwater blast from a test warhead loaded to an unmanned underwater nuclear attack craft "Haeil" during an exercise around Hongwon Bay in waters off North Korea's eastern coast on March 23, 2023. Independent journalists weren't given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and can't be independently verified. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

The drills involved the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the USS Wayne E. Meyer and the USS Decatur, which were recently deployed to South Korea’s Busan naval base.

North Korea’s official mouthpiece later reported that the regime tested a new type of nuclear-capable underwater drone, dubbed “Haeil-2,” from April 4 to April 7 to assess the weapon’s “fatal attack ability.”

North Korea stated that its underwater attack drone had undergone more than 50 shakedowns in the past two years. It’s built to “stealthily infiltrate into operational waters” and make underwater explosions to destroy naval striker groups and enemy ports.

However, analysts are skeptical of North Korea’s claims and say the regime may have “exaggerated” the drone’s capabilities. South Korea’s military stated that the development of the Haeil drone is still at an early stage.

“Having pieced together the South Korea–U.S. analysis of the ‘underwater nuclear attack drone’ as well as expert views on it, our military is putting weight to the possibility that the claim might have been exaggerated or fabricated,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated.