Headline and article updated at 18:00 KST to include MOU confirmation that regular afternoon inter-Korean call took place as usual.

North Korea did not respond to a regular liaison office phone call from the South for the first time since the communication channel opened in 2018, Seoul’s unification ministry said Monday morning.

The lack of response follows North Korea’s announcement on Friday of its intention to withdraw from the inter-Korean liaison office in response to anti-regime leaflet balloons sent over the border by defector groups in the South.

Military communication lines between the two Koreas, however, are operating as usual,