Moon, Kim connected with direct hotline

Hotline installed week ahead of April 27 summit

By Yi Whan-woo

A hotline connecting President Moon Jae-in to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been installed, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday, one week ahead of their historic April 27 summit.

It said the direct communication line was set up between Moon's office and Kim's office at the State Affairs Commission. Kim serves as the commission chairman.

Staffers from the two sides made a test call, and there were no problems, the office said.

This is the first time a hotline was installed between the leaders of the two countries.

Moon and Kim are highly expected to have their first phone conversation soon, possibly early next week before they meet.

"We successfully set up a historic telephone line for the two leaders and also had a test call at 3:41 p.m. for four minutes and 19 seconds," said Yun Kun-young, a senior Cheong Wa Dae official and also a member of the preparation committee for the inter-Korea summit.

The two sides exchanged two calls, with the Seoul side making the first call.

Song In-bae, Moon's personal secretary, called the North first, and a State Affairs Commission official picked up the phone and answered accordingly. They had a casual conversation about the weather.

After the first telephone conversation, the North called the South again.

"The connection was very good quality. It sounded as if we were talking to a neighbor who lives right next door," Yun said. "We'll make sure to our best in the lead-up to the summit."

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A different Cheong Wa Dae official explained that North decided to connect the hotline to the State Affairs Commission, because Kim, who holds multiple titles, will represent his country as the commission chairman during the April 27 summit.

Many speculated the North end of the hotline will be connected to the ruling Workers' Party because the party is the country's supreme policy-making body. Kim also serves as its chairman.

The installation of the hotline, Friday, comes after the two Koreas' militaries as well as their intelligence agencies restored their direct communication channels in January, when Kim offered to talk with the South.

The two sides have also restored a hotline between their staffers at the truce village of Panmunjeom.

Seoul and Pyongyang will hold separate rehearsals ahead of the inter-Korea summit to be held at Peace House on the southern side of Panmunjeom.

The South plans to rehearse on Tuesday and Thursday at Peace House, while the North is expected to rehearse on Tuesday or Wednesday at its own Panmunjeom venue.

The summit will be followed by another one between Kim and U.S. Donald Trump in May or June.

Trump said he would strive to make the meeting a "worldwide success." The diplomatic sources in Seoul said his comment is seen as a positive sign for the Moon-Kim meeting.

"We hope to see the day when the whole Korean Peninsula can live together in safety, prosperity and peace," Trump said during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Wednesday. "We will be doing everything possible to make it a worldwide success. We hope it all works out and we'll be trying very hard."

In Washington, D.C., Thursday, U.S. Department of State spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. would support a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War as is being discussed by the two Koreas.

"We would certainly like to see an end, a formal end to the armistice, and that's something that we would support," Nauert said during a regular press briefing.

North Korea adopted a softer posture towards its neighbor during the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

It sent Kim's sister Kim Yo-jong with a delegation of athletes and then held talks with Moon's envoys in Pyongyang before issuing Trump an invitation to meet with Kim.

It was revealed this week that CIA director and U.S. Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo had traveled to North Korea over Easter weekend to secretively lay the groundwork for Pyongyang-Washington talks.