South Korea’s unification and defense ministries told NK News that North Korea has not answered calls via inter-Korean hotlines for a week as of Tuesday, as Pyongyang takes issue with ongoing U.S.-ROK military exercises.

Experts say the DPRK will continue to leave Seoul hanging unless the Kim regime sees an opportunity to extract some sort of concession.

“The silence from the North end of the hotline is akin to revenge for betraying trust, from North Korea’s point of view. So regular calls between the two sides are difficult to imagine again unless Pyongyang finds a good enough justification to do