South Korea urges North to restore hotlines for any talks

[soryang]

1. There won't be much progress in talks until after March 2022 presidential elections

One avenue suggested uncharacteristically by neocon Victor Cha was the humanitarian aid route. Clearly, some kind of breakthrough needs to be made to suggest good will on the US side, by unplugging sanctions bottlenecks that make humanitarian aid difficult. The open phone lines at a liaison office would be nice too, but the North seems to be carried away with their symbolic value when in fact, such communications are very practical to avoid unnecessary friction and misunderstandings that could lead to military confrontation.

If a conservative candidate is elected president in South Korea in March 2022, future talks will probably be stalled indefinitely. The conservative candidates seem too preoccupied with military solutions like asking the US to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in the South. It could just be rhetoric for campaign purposes, but it represents an unhealthy drift in South Korean politics and affects current perceptions of what they are doing militarily.

The south just rolled out its third SLBM submarine and earlier this month successfully test fired a sub launched ballistic missile.