A South Korean liaison officer speaks with his North Korean counterpart. (Unification Ministry)
Since the establishment of the Moscow-Washington hotline in 1963 following rising nuclear tensions between the Pentagon and the Soviets, many countries have adopted the “red telephone” culture for leaders to communicate directly, particularly in times of crisis. For example, the Beijing-Washington hotline was set up in November 2007 when the two countries agreed to ease dialogue and avoid miscommunications during moments of crisis in the Pacific. The first Seoul-Pyongyang hotline began operation in September 1971. Today there are 33 telecommunication lines between the two Koreas that run through the Panmunjom Joint Security Area (“Panmunjom”) within the Demilitarized Zone and maintained by the Red Cross, five of which are used for daily communications, 21 for negotiations, two for handling air traffic, two for sea transport and three for economic co-operation.
Despite significant diplomatic implications associated with the inter-Korean hotline, Pyongyang has remained unresponsive to the twice-daily routine calls from Seoul for five consecutive days since Good Friday amidst elevating tensions on the peninsula. The North stopped responding since the South issued a warning on the preceding Thursday demanding Pyongyang to stop operating South Korean-owned assets, namely buses provided by the South for the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the joint economic project that South Korea pulled out of in 2016. This marked the first time the hotline calls went unanswered for consecutive days since they were resumed in October 2021. In response, South Korea’s Unification Ministry expressed “strong regret” over Pyongyang’s “unilateral and irresponsible move” to suspend the liaison communication channel.
KOREA’S GREEN AND RED PHONES
There are two telephone handsets that sit in South Korea’s Freedom House, one green and one red, in case one fails. Although both phones are capable of calling and receiving, Seoul calls on the green phone every day at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and receives incoming calls from Pyongyang on the red phone. The hotline phones are operated by experts in diplomatic protocol from the Unification Ministry, and every detail pertaining to the call is carefully arranged to avoid even the slightest risk of conflict. For instance, to resolve the problem of who calls first, it was initially decided that Seoul would call Pyongyang on odd dates and vice versa on even dates.
On April 20, 2018, an additional top-level hotline was set up between the then-South Korean president and North Korean leader a week prior to the historical summit held in the border town of Panmunjom. Despite the fact that telephone usage is no technological breakthrough in the 21st century, steps to ensure the line was working in both directions were meticulously implemented: South Korean officials were to pick the phone up first before taking a return call from the North. In stark contrast to modern day complaints about the speed of internet connections on smartphones, a four-minute and 17 second telephone conversation between the two countries on landline was remarkably deemed a success for having smooth connection and good voice quality, and as a South Korean official commented, “It was like calling next door.”
REPAIRING RELATIONSHIPS AFTER A FIGHT
The inter-Korean hotlines have gone through periods of suspensions over the past years. More specifically, North Korea unilaterally disconnected the hotline eight times in 1976, 1980, 1996, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2020-2021. Most recently in June 2020, the North declined calls and criticized the South for their activists’ anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns. The calls were only resumed in July in the following year, when the former president, Moon Jae-in, exchanged letters with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and pledged to improve ties. Although they were severed again for about two months a few weeks later in protest against Seoul-Washington’s military exercises, North Korean state media reported that the two sides reconnected again in October.
Although establishing a hotline between two countries is not unique to the two Koreas, the inter-Korean hotline has long formed a key connection between the South and the reclusive North. As a result, making or receiving a call through the hotline is no longer a matter of convenience, but a symbol of peace and stability between the two countries that are still technically at war.
