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N Korea to restore army hotline | |
(about 5 hours later) | |
North Korea has told South Korea that it will restore a cross-border military hotline it severed earlier this month. | |
The North cut the last line of quick contact between the two in protest at a US-South Korean military drill, which it sees as a prelude to a US invasion. | |
The joint manoeuvres, which have since ended, further heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula. | |
Earlier, China's president urged the North to return to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme. | |
The six-party talks, which also include South Korea, the US, Japan, and Russia, aim to offer aid to Pyongyang in return for the North ending its controversial nuclear activities. | |
We hope that relevant parties can consider the whole situation, appropriately resolve their differences and promote the progress of six-party talks Chinese President Hu Jintao But negotiations have been deadlocked for months because of a dispute with the US over how to verify the North's full range of past nuclear activities. | |
The situation has been further enflamed by the North's announcement that it plans to test-fire a rocket early next month. | |
Concerns voiced | |
Seoul's unification ministry said the North had sent a message announcing that the hotline would be reconnected at 0800 on Saturday (2300 GMT on Friday). | |
The hotline is intended as a means of direct communication at a time of high tension. It is also used to co-ordinate the passage of people and goods through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. | |
class="" href="/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2564241.stm">North Korea's missile programme | |
The border between the two Koreas has been intermittently closed since the communication lines were cut on 9 March - when the US-South Korea drill began - stranding South Korea workers at a shared industrial estate and badly affecting businesses there. | |
The North's move comes just hours after Beijing urged North Korea to restart talks on its nuclear programme. | |
"We hope that relevant parties can consider the whole situation, appropriately resolve their differences and promote the progress of the six-party talks," Xinhua news agency quoted President Hu Jintao as saying. | |
China has voiced its concern over the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's planned rocket launch. | |
The North insists it is preparing to send up a communications satellite - and that any attempt to shoot it down would result in war. | |
The US, Japan and South Korea have all expressed concerns that the North is actually planning to test-fire a long-range missile. | The US, Japan and South Korea have all expressed concerns that the North is actually planning to test-fire a long-range missile. |
North Korea is banned from firing either device under a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting it from ballistic activity. | North Korea is banned from firing either device under a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting it from ballistic activity. |
Tensions have been high between North and South Korea since the South's conservative President Lee Myung-Bak scrapped his predecessors' policy of offering virtually unconditional aid to Pyongyang. | |
North and South Korea technically remain in a state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty. |