North Korea refuses to pick up calls from South during military drills with US

Kim Jong-un’s sister earlier said Seoul’s military drills with US are an ‘act of self-destruction for which a dear price should be paid’

File image: South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un decided to resume the hotline to improve ties between the two nations (Getty Images)

North Korea refused to pick up routine phone calls — part of the inter-Korean hotline — from South Korea, Seoul has alleged, after Pyongyang threatened that South Korea will pay a price for carrying out the scheduled military drills with the US.

The hotline between the two Korean nations was reinstated in the last month to improve ties, a year after Pyongyang disconnected the line. After weeks of smooth coordination, South Korea’s unification and defence ministries said on Tuesday, the calls made from the South in the late afternoon were going unanswered.

The two Koreas typically check in over the hotlines twice a day, and the morning calls to North Korean officials were answered as usual on hotlines maintained by South Korea’s military and those used by the unification ministry, which handles relations with Pyongyang, according to Reuters news agency.

The alleged move comes soon after a threatening statement from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong, where she accused South Korea of “perfidious behaviour” for going ahead with the military drills with US.

In a statement carried by North Korea’s state news agency, she said the latest drills were “the most vivid expression of the US hostile policy” towards North Korea and called the exercises an “act of self-destruction for which a dear price should be paid as they threaten the safety of our people and further imperil the situation on the Korean peninsula.”

The preliminary training under planned drills between South Korea and the US began on Tuesday and larger, computer-simulated exercises will begin next week. The drills have proved to be a divisive issue between Pyongyang and Seoul.

A spokesperson for the South Korean presidential office told Reuters news agency that it would monitor the North’s moves instead of “jumping to conclusions.”

Additional reporting by agencies