North Korea reopens hotline and seeks talks with South

North Korea said yesterday it would restore a hotline with South Korea and proposed holding weekend talks in a border town, as the two rivals sought to ease months of soaring military tensions.

The two Koreas unexpectedly reached a snap agreement on Thursday on opening a dialogue, with South Korea responding to an initiative from the North by offering a ministerial-level meeting in Seoul on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Pyongyang's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) welcomed the South's quick response, and suggested initial lower-level talks tomorrow in the Kaesong joint industrial zone.

The North shut down Kaesong, which lies just over its side of the border, in April as the recent crisis on the divided peninsula peaked. Reopening the joint complex will top the agenda for the proposed dialogue.

"Working-level contact ... is necessary prior to ministerial-level talks proposed by the South, in light of the prevailing situation in which bilateral relations have stalemated for years and mistrust has reached an extreme," the CPRK spokesman said.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said it was "studying" the offer.

The hotline, suspended by the North in March as military tensions flared, was scheduled to be restored at 2pm yesterday, the CPRK spokesman added.