<p>North and South Korea signalled a surprise thaw in relations on Tuesday, announcing the restoration of cross-border communications that were severed more than a year ago and an agreement between their two leaders to improve ties.</p>.<p>The joint announcement, which coincided with the anniversary of the end of the Korean War, was the first positive development since a series of summits between the North's Kim Jong Un and the South's President Moon Jae-in in 2018 failed to achieve any significant breakthrough.</p>.<p>The two sides revealed that Kim and Moon had exchanged a series of letters since April in which they agreed that re-establishing hotlines would be a productive first step in rebooting relations between the two rivals who, despite the end of their 1950-53 conflict, remain technically at war.</p>.<p>"The top leaders of the north and the south agreed to make a big stride in recovering the mutual trust and promoting reconciliation by restoring the cut-off inter-Korean communication liaison lines," North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported.</p>.<p>Pyongyang unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links in June last year over activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, but the two sides said all lines were restored on Tuesday.</p>.<p>They exchanged their first phone call since the suspension on Tuesday morning, Seoul's unification ministry said, with the defence ministry adding that military hotlines were also back to normal operation.</p>.<p>Moon's office said that restoring the hotlines was the first step towards improving ties.</p>.<p>"The two leaders also agreed to restore mutual trust between the two Koreas as soon as possible and move forward with the relationship again," it added in a statement.</p>.<p>The dovish Moon is credited with brokering the first-ever summit between North Korea and a sitting US president in Singapore in June 2018.</p>.<p>But Pyongyang largely cut off contact with Seoul following the collapse of a second summit between Kim and then US president Donald Trump in Hanoi that left nuclear talks at a standstill.</p>.<p>Just days after severing the hotlines last year, Pyongyang also blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border and threatened to bolster its military presence along the Demilitarized Zone that separates them.</p>.<p>The United States welcomed the agreement.</p>.<p>"We certainly believe that this is a positive step," State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters.</p>.<p>"Diplomacy and dialogue are central to achieving complete denuclearisation and establishing permanent peace on the Korean peninsula," she said.</p>.<p>Since US President Joe Biden took office, Pyongyang and Washington have adopted a wait-and-see attitude to relations following the diplomatic roller-coaster ride under Trump that produced three summits but no agreement on dismantling the North's nuclear arsenal.</p>.<p>Kim said in June that Pyongyang needed to prepare for both "dialogue and confrontation" with Washington -- but with a particular emphasis on the latter.</p>.<p>The White House promised a "practical, calibrated approach" -- including diplomatic efforts -- in a recent review of its strategy to persuade the impoverished North to give up its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.</p>.<p>Sung Kim, the top US diplomat in charge of North Korea negotiations, said in June that Washington was ready to meet with Pyongyang "anywhere, anytime, without preconditions".</p>.<p>But Kim Yo Jong -- Kim Jong Un's sister and one of his key advisers -- dismissed the offer.</p>.<p>Analysts said Tuesday's restoration of the inter-Korean hotlines signalled Kim's initial response to Washington's talks offer.</p>.<p>"It looks like he has decided that restoring inter-Korean relations is beneficial to the North's both domestic and foreign policies and politics," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.</p>.<p>Despite the standstill in talks, Moon has relentlessly stressed the importance of restoring inter-Korean ties, he added.</p>.<p>"This should be read as Kim Jong Un's first response to Seoul and Washington," Yang said.</p>
<p>North and South Korea signalled a surprise thaw in relations on Tuesday, announcing the restoration of cross-border communications that were severed more than a year ago and an agreement between their two leaders to improve ties.</p>.<p>The joint announcement, which coincided with the anniversary of the end of the Korean War, was the first positive development since a series of summits between the North's Kim Jong Un and the South's President Moon Jae-in in 2018 failed to achieve any significant breakthrough.</p>.<p>The two sides revealed that Kim and Moon had exchanged a series of letters since April in which they agreed that re-establishing hotlines would be a productive first step in rebooting relations between the two rivals who, despite the end of their 1950-53 conflict, remain technically at war.</p>.<p>"The top leaders of the north and the south agreed to make a big stride in recovering the mutual trust and promoting reconciliation by restoring the cut-off inter-Korean communication liaison lines," North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported.</p>.<p>Pyongyang unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links in June last year over activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, but the two sides said all lines were restored on Tuesday.</p>.<p>They exchanged their first phone call since the suspension on Tuesday morning, Seoul's unification ministry said, with the defence ministry adding that military hotlines were also back to normal operation.</p>.<p>Moon's office said that restoring the hotlines was the first step towards improving ties.</p>.<p>"The two leaders also agreed to restore mutual trust between the two Koreas as soon as possible and move forward with the relationship again," it added in a statement.</p>.<p>The dovish Moon is credited with brokering the first-ever summit between North Korea and a sitting US president in Singapore in June 2018.</p>.<p>But Pyongyang largely cut off contact with Seoul following the collapse of a second summit between Kim and then US president Donald Trump in Hanoi that left nuclear talks at a standstill.</p>.<p>Just days after severing the hotlines last year, Pyongyang also blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border and threatened to bolster its military presence along the Demilitarized Zone that separates them.</p>.<p>The United States welcomed the agreement.</p>.<p>"We certainly believe that this is a positive step," State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters.</p>.<p>"Diplomacy and dialogue are central to achieving complete denuclearisation and establishing permanent peace on the Korean peninsula," she said.</p>.<p>Since US President Joe Biden took office, Pyongyang and Washington have adopted a wait-and-see attitude to relations following the diplomatic roller-coaster ride under Trump that produced three summits but no agreement on dismantling the North's nuclear arsenal.</p>.<p>Kim said in June that Pyongyang needed to prepare for both "dialogue and confrontation" with Washington -- but with a particular emphasis on the latter.</p>.<p>The White House promised a "practical, calibrated approach" -- including diplomatic efforts -- in a recent review of its strategy to persuade the impoverished North to give up its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.</p>.<p>Sung Kim, the top US diplomat in charge of North Korea negotiations, said in June that Washington was ready to meet with Pyongyang "anywhere, anytime, without preconditions".</p>.<p>But Kim Yo Jong -- Kim Jong Un's sister and one of his key advisers -- dismissed the offer.</p>.<p>Analysts said Tuesday's restoration of the inter-Korean hotlines signalled Kim's initial response to Washington's talks offer.</p>.<p>"It looks like he has decided that restoring inter-Korean relations is beneficial to the North's both domestic and foreign policies and politics," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.</p>.<p>Despite the standstill in talks, Moon has relentlessly stressed the importance of restoring inter-Korean ties, he added.</p>.<p>"This should be read as Kim Jong Un's first response to Seoul and Washington," Yang said.</p>