North Korea has been found to have restored its direct communication line with the UN Command(UNC) in the process of postponing talks with the U.S. on repatriating the remains of American troops killed in the Korean War. 

According to diplomatic sources on Friday, North Korea used the direct line to cancel working-level talks on the repatriation issue scheduled for Thursday and to propose holding general-level military talks instead on Sunday. 

The sources said that the North informed the South via the liaison channel at Panmunjeom of its hopes to restore the direct phone line with the UNC, and the South then conveyed the Pyongyang's wish to the UNC.  

The hotline was severed in 2013 after the North declared invalid the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War. Since then, the UNC had used a microphone in front of the Demilitarized Zone to deliver any messages it had for the North.

[Photo : YONHAP News]