North Korea has not responded to South Korea’s routine calls on the direct communication channels between the two countries for days. The reasons for this were unclear until the evening. But the Unification Ministry in Seoul suspected that the largely isolated neighboring country could have unilaterally cut off communication.
Since Friday there has been no answer to the calls from the responsible “liaison officers” in Seoul, which are usually made twice a day, it said.
According to the South Korean Ministry of Defense, the military connection channels were also affected. Initially, there was no explanation from North Korea.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula are currently increasing significantly again. Observers suspect that North Korea could also express its protest against South Korea’s joint military exercises with the United States with the communication interruption.
Tested multiple nuclear-capable missiles
After an unprecedented series of missile tests last year, North Korea has repeatedly tested nuclear-capable missiles again this year, despite a ban by UN resolutions. The US and South Korea resumed full-scale maneuvers.
As the North Korean state media reported on Saturday, an underwater drone that could also be equipped with a nuclear warhead was tested again for four days until Friday. The unmanned underwater vehicle “Haeil-2” has “superior military potential” for the future of its own armed forces, it said. In this way, all “enemy military actions” could be kept in check.
The test reportedly took place for four days through Friday. The attack drone completed 1,000 kilometers of a “simulated distance underwater” in 71 hours and 6 minutes before the test warhead detonated in the target area off the east coast. The information cannot be independently verified. The North Korean media had already reported on the test of a “Haeil” drone in March. The statements made by North Korea about the test were then questioned by the South Korean military.
