How North and South Korea got back in touch

At 3.30 p.m. on Wednesday, a telephone rang in a room in a uninhabited town in the peaceful area isolating North and South Korea.

Out of the blue since February 2016, the North was calling the South.

What's more, South Korea replied.

Little is thought about the substance of the 20-minute call, which finished at 3:50 p.m. South Korean time (which is 30 minutes in front of North Korean time). The South Korean Ministry of Unification just said the two sides "checked specialized issues of the correspondence line."

Calls are made utilizing a red handset, stamped "North," and got on a green handset. Letters over the PC screen read "South-North Direct Phone" and two timekeepers demonstrate the present time in every nation.

After the call finished, authorities from the Ministry of Unification — in charge of "all issues relating to between Korean relations and unification" — remained by the telephone, in case the North would call once more.

Also, a little more than two hours after the fact, after haziness had fallen in the town of Panmunjom, they did. At 6:07 p.m. nearby time, North Korea reached again, saying, "We should turn in until tomorrow today."

The begin of standard contact?

Prior in the day, North Korean state media reported that the nation's pioneer, Kim Jong Un, had given the request to open the line and decide. The trigger gave off an impression of being the up and coming Winter Olympics in South Korea, where North Korea plans to have its competitors spoke to.

The news came as an unforeseen pleasure to South Korea, whose president has since quite a while ago called for exchange with the North.

The South has been calling the North consistently at 9 a.m. what's more, 4 p.m. since interchanges stopped in February 2016 — and never finding a solution. A similar telephone was utilized to get the present calls.

"The rebuilding of the correspondence channels implies a considerable measure," said Yoon Young-chan, the South Korean presidential press secretary. He said he trusted it would prompt North-South contact being made "all the time."

A town of war and peace

The two closures of the hotline utilized are situated in the outskirt town of Panmunjom in the peaceful area (DMZ) between the two states. The correct areas of the two telephones are obscure, yet it is likely that they are close to a couple of hundred yards separated.

The town is home to 33 correspondences lines amongst South and North Korea, as per the Ministry of Unification.

In spite of consistent military nearness, Panmunjom is known as a peace town. It was here that the two sides consented to a truce arrangement in 1953, finishing three years of dynamic battle in the Korean War.

In any case, it was likewise here that deserter Oh Chong Song was shot in November as he fled south by kindred North Korean officers, who disregarded the truce by discharging into the DMZ.

Regardless of whether Panmunjom will again enter the history books — this time as where North-South conciliatory relations were restored — is as yet obscure.

A representative for South Korea's Unification Ministry revealed to CNN that there was no specify of future talks in Wednesday's telephone calls.

In any case, given that South Korea has been calling the North twice per day for as long as two years, it's feasible that the telephone at the northern end of the hotline will ring at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

That is if North Korea doesn't call first.