Mick Hartley

The North-South cross-border hotline has been re-opened:

North Korea on Monday reconnected cross-border hotlines amid tentative signs of a thaw after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his willingness to restore them.

But the official [North] Korean Central News Agency warned South Korea to "make positive efforts to put the North-South ties on a right track and settle important tasks… bearing deep in mind the meaning of the restoration of communication lines."

The North unilaterally disconnected the communication lines in June last year but briefly restored them this July, only to stop answering calls again a month later.

The Unification Ministry welcomed the development, saying that it "lays the ground for peace on the Korean Peninsula and bringing relations between the two Koreas back on track." The ministry made no mention of the North's recent spate of missile provocations

Seoul hopes that the latest restoration of the hotlines will lead to a phone conversation between President Moon Jae-in and Kim and eventually another inter-Korean summit before Moon's term ends to boost his party's fortunes in next year's presidential election.

President Moon may be hoping for a pre-election boost, but really this is not a big deal: Kim Jong-un throwing Moon a bone. And clearly hoping for something in return:

On July 24, the North abruptly restored the communication lines, but a week later, Kim's younger sister Yo-jong demanded the suspension of joint South Korea-U.S. drills in a midnight statement. Seoul did scale down the exercises citing the coronavirus pandemic, but the North disconnected the lines again two weeks later.

The "important tasks" the North is now insisting on include a ban of any mention of Pyongyang's missile tests, permanently suspending joint drills with the U.S., and efforts to help ease international sanctions on the North.

Meanwhile:

North Korea may have restarted Monday the inter-Korean hotline Pyongyang unilaterally cut in August, but the North Korean military has reportedly bolstered internal ideological education to “guard against the spread of the Korean Wave.”

The Korean Wave refers to the growing popularity of South Korean pop culture, especially in East Asia.

According to a Daily NK military source in Pyongyang, the North Korean military’s General Political Bureau distributed to the entire military on Thursday “collective study materials” calling for soldiers to “boldly defeat imperialist schemes to ideologically and culturally infiltrate” the country and “establish a revolutionary military spirit.”

The political study materials involve a week’s worth of self-study, lectures, exercises, criticism and Q&As aimed at young soldiers throughout the military, supervised by unit propaganda departments and youth activities departments.

What is worth noting is that with the materials distributed on Thursday, North Korean military authorities launched their ideological education program the very day after national leader Kim Jong Un announced through local and international-facing media Pyongyang’s intention to restart the hotline.

The move is seemingly aimed at getting a grip on potential ideological laxity within the military before authorities begin restoring dialogue and ties with the South.

In fact, the materials warn that though the North Korean military possesses modern weaponry as a nuclear power, socialism “will collapse overnight like a water-logged wall” if authorities carelessly educate young soldiers. 

If that's what they think, they clearly can't have much faith in the strength of their arguments.