South and North Korea have opened a hot line connecting President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, marking the first such communication channel linking the leaders of the two states since the division of the Korean Peninsula.  

The direct telephone line between Cheong Wa Dae and the office of North Korea's State Affairs Commission opened at 3:41 p.m. on Friday afternoon, one week before an inter-Korean summit scheduled for next Friday at the border village of Panmunjeom. 

Yun Kun-young, head of the situation room at the top office, told media during a briefing that after the line opened, the two Koreas successfully held two test calls over the span of four minutes and 19 seconds.

The first call was initiated by the South and the other by the North lasting for three minutes and two seconds and one minute and 17 seconds, respectively. Yun said the connection in both calls was smooth and clear as if they were calling next door.

Moon plans to hold his first phone call with the North Korean leader via the hot line before their meeting. It is connected to a phone sitting on the president's desk in his office. It will be the first time the leaders of the two Koreas will talk to each other by phone. 

The two Koreas had established a hot line after the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, after then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il accepted then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s proposal to do so. However, it is known they never used the telephone line. 

At that time, the hot line was established between South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and the North’s United Front Department of the ruling Workers’ Party, not directly between the top leaders. 

The old hot line is believed to have helped ease accidental military conflicts between the two countries, but it had been virtually suspended under the two previous conservative administrations in the South. 

It was restored when the North Korean leader's sister, Kim Yo-jong, visited the South to attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February.  

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