North Korea restores military hot line with South

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
North Korea restored its military communications hot line with South Korea and said it would reopen a border crossing, officials said Saturday. The North Korean 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 South Korea 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 the North. The drills ended Friday. "Officials of the two Koreas conducted a trial phone conversation," after reconnecting the hot line Saturday morning, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.