DPRK shuts border, but will open phone line
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) closed its southern border on Friday for the third time in recent days, even as it told Seoul it would restore a military communications hot line severed last week, Republic of Korea (ROK) officials said.
The DPRK military cut the communications line on March 9 to protest Seoul's decision to hold 12 days of joint military exercises with US troops across ROK at a time of heightened tension on the peninsula.
Washington and Seoul call the war games routine defense drills; Pyongyang accused the two nations' militaries of preparing to attack it.
The drills ended on Friday. DPRK said it would reconnect the hot line at 8 am on Saturday, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.
"We will again restore the North-South military communications," said a message faxed to ROK border officials, according to Lee.
The hot line is the only means of quick communication left between the two Koreas and is vital for coordinating the passage of people and goods across their border - one of the most heavily fortified in the world. The two countries technically remain at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
Since the war games began on March 9, DPRK officials have refused three times to let ROK workers commute to and from jobs at an industrial park in the border town of Kaesong, leaving hundreds stranded in DPRK.
AP
(China Daily 03/21/2009 page11)
