North Korea did not answer South Korea’s phone calls across the inter-Korean military line for a second day in a row on Saturday, military officials in Seoul were quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.

The North did not answer regular morning and afternoon calls between the two sides, officials said, after daily calls through a military line and another cross-border communication channel went unanswered the day before.

The two Koreas usually have telephone conversations twice a day, using the joint communications office channel and their military channel. If the communication channel works only on weekdays, then the military one works on weekends as well.

“Regular calls are not made due to an unspecified reason from the North,” a military official said. “We will monitor the situation, keeping all options open, including the (technical) problem on the northern line.”

The news comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea’s recent weapons tests in protest of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States.

Daily phone calls through inter-Korean communication channels previously went unanswered due to technical reasons. Last June, Pyongyang did not respond to a routine call to the hotline, likely due to technical problems caused by heavy rains.

In July 2021, North Korea restored the inter-Korean telephone line, about a year after cutting the communication channel to protest the distribution of leaflets by activists in Seoul critical of Pyongyang. The line of communication was interrupted again in August of the same year and restored later. (News.ro)