North Korea to reopen military hotline with South by Wednesday

North Korea has completed technical maintenance needed to reopen a military hotline with South Korea on the west coast, a South Korean government official told reporters, with normal communications via the hotline expected to resume on Wednesday.

North Korean officials holding talks with South Korean officials at the truce village of Panmunjom on Tuesday informed their South Korean counterparts before midday, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung added. 

The two sides sit within shouting distance, but when North and South Korea arranged the first official talks in more than two years, liaison officials spoke using desktop telephone consoles each the size of a small refrigerator. 

The inter-Korean Liaison Office at the heart of this new spurt of dialogue between the two sides, sits at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom, the only spot along the heavily fortified demilitarized zone that divides North and South Korea where troops from both sides stand face to face.

If the telephone operators wanted to, they could step out of their office and talk to their counterparts only 80 meters (260 feet) away in a separate building across the demarcation line.