Inter-Korea hotline: Will daily calls build momentum to a summit?

The two Koreas are chatting, but Kim's sister says talk of leaders' meeting 'premature'

20210802 KJU

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un leads the first workshop of the commanders and political officers of the Korean People's Army in Pyongyang, in this image supplied by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on July 30, 2021 © Reuters

GABRIELA BERNAL, Contributing writer

SEOUL -- After cutting communication lines with Seoul and blowing up the inter-Korean liaison office last year, North Korea is talking to its southern neighbor again.

The hotline was restored on July 27, 13 months after it was cut off by Pyongyang. The two Koreas held their first call on Wednesday, and are supposed to hold regular phone calls twice a day, at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. "The top leaders agreed to make a big stride in recovering mutual trust and promoting reconciliation," reported the North's Korean Central News Agency.

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