Foreign media have reported as important news the July 27 restoration of an inter-Korean communications hotline that had been severed by North Korea more than a year ago. (Screen capture from Washington Post)

By Kim Minji

Foreign media have highlighted the July 27 restoration of an inter-Korean hotline 413 days after it was severed by North Korea.

Reuters of the U.K., AFP of France, and The Associated Press and Bloomberg of the U.S. quoted Cheong Wa Dae's announcement as saying the two Koreas agreed to restore a severed cross-border hotline.

On why the North agreed to resume communication, foreign reports mentioned the country's serious economic hardship stemming from international sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Washington Post said, "Experts said the economic hardships North Korea is facing this year could push the regime to return to talks with the United States or South Korea. In the wake of the pandemic, North Korea shut down its borders and cut off trade with neighboring countries, worsening an economy already crippled by sanctions."

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said, "North Korea is facing severe challenges on the home front -- with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling the current times the country's worst-ever crisis," adding, "The country sealed off its borders over COVID-19 fears, undercutting cross-border trade with China. Warnings of food shortages have become more prominent."

Many international reports called the restored communication a positive signal for the extended stalemate in talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, while others urged to wait and see what the North's response is down the road.

Bloomberg said the leaders of the two Koreas exchanged letters and rebuild bilateral ties, calling this a breakthrough in the protracted stalemate in nuclear talks.

Other overseas media including AFP and Welt Online of Germany quoted Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, as saying the communications restoration is aimed to improve inter-Korean relations and will pave the way for the North and the U.S. to resume bilateral talks.

"Many uncertainties remain, such as how and if North Korea will react to planned South Korea-U.S. military exercises next month," Rachel Lee, a nonresident fellow at 38 North, a website focused on North Korea, told the WSJ, "but the language that North Korea used to describe the resumption of hotline communications is positive."

James Kim of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul told Reuters that "Pyongyang might mean to show some willingness to respond to U.S. overtures" but warned against "reading too much into the latest move."

"We need to see some seriousness on Pyongyang's part to move towards denuclearization for us to say that there is genuine progress," he added.

kimmj7725@korea.kr