torsdag 30. september 2021

North Korea's Kim Jong-un offers to restore inter-Korean hotline

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said he is willing to restore a vital communication hotline with South Korea, in a possible offer of reconciliation. He also accused the US of proposing talks without changing its "hostile policy" towards the North. Pyongyang severed the hotlines in August this year in protest against South Korea-US military drills.

Mr Kim's latest comments came during Pyongyang's annual parliament session. "The US is touting 'diplomatic engagement'... but it is no more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community and hiding its hostile acts and an extension of the hostile policy pursued by the successive U.S. administrations," a report by state news outlet KCNA said.

But Mr Kim appeared to extend a conditional olive branch towards South Korea. The KCNA report stated that "[Kim Jong-un] expressed the intention to see to it that the North-South communication lines that had been cut off due to the deteriorated inter-Korean relations are restored first from early October".