North Korea said it has reopened a cross-border communication system with the South after the North’s leader Kim Jong Un said on New Year’s Day that his nation is willing to send a delegation to next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea

The South’s Unification Ministry said in a statement that the two neighbors were communicating through the system at the border village of Panmunjom on Wednesday.

Officials were first trying to examine whether the communicating lines were working well, the statement said.

It came a day after South Korea proposed talks on the North’s possible participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics after Kim said his regime is willing to discuss the issue.

Pyongyang suspended the communication system in February 2016 after South Korea closed Kaesong manufacturing park, a jointly-run industrial complex.

Ri Son-gwon, a spokesman for the North Korean government, said: “By upholding a decision by the leadership, we will make close contact with South Korea in a sincere and faithful manner,” the South’s Yonhap news agency reported.

“We will discuss working-level issues over our potential dispatch of the delegation,” Ri added.

There have been repeated attempts to hold talks between the two Koreas in recent years, but the efforts often end in recriminations and stalemate.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Wednesday that China hoped the two Koreas would try to “meet each other halfway” and that China hoped that “all sides concerned will seize this positive turn of events.”

Kim said Monday that he has a “nuclear button” on his desk, to which President Trump tweeted that he also has a nuclear button, “but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

Commenting on Trump’s tweet, Geng urged countries to “maintain restraint” and say things that are “conducive to alleviating the situation.”

courtesy= usatoday.com