By Yi Whan-woo
The
restoration of the cross-border communication channel at the truce village of Panmunjeom, Wednesday, is fueling optimism that the two Koreas may soon reopen their military hotlines as well.
The two sides reopened about 30 landlines connecting their liaison offices at Panmunjeom to discuss high-level talks in preparation for North Korea's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The communication channel at Panmunjeom is mainly for non-military purposes and is separate from six suspended military hotlines that connect the two sides.
The talks between the South and North Korean militaries about restoring their communication lines are seen as necessary, according to diplomatic and military sources, Thursday.
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They say this is because North Korea may opt to send their athletes to the Olympics via a land route across the heavily fortified border.
The sources also said the Moon Jae-in administration, which favors dialogue with the Kim Jong-un regime, has been seeking to restore all inter-Korean communication lines.
The full restoration of communication links, if realized, is expected to help avoid misunderstandings between the two Koreas, especially over military issues, and reduce tension on the Korean Peninsula.
Each land line at Panmunjeom was set up for a different purpose of discussion, such as issues on high-level talks, the Red Cross, maritime affairs, aviation and now-closed Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) in North Korea.
The Kim regime unilaterally blocked all Panmunjeom dialogue channels in February 2016, after the Park Geun-hye administration decided to pull South Korean firms out of the GIC in response to North Korea's ballistic missile provocations.
The two Koreas had run three undersea cables each in the East and West seas -- one for telephone, one for fax and the remaining ones for backup.
The cables in the East Sea went out of operation in 2008 after South Korea scrapped the joint tour project to Mount Geumgang in North Korea.
The cables in the West Sea were set up to better control visitors to the inter-Korean factory zone in Gaeseong. They were shut down in February 2016.
Before the Panmunjeom communication channel reopened, Wednesday, South Korean officials visited the border and communicated via a microphone when they needed to deliver messages to North Korea.
