LOS ANGELES – North Korea on Wednesday restored a key military hotline with South Korea after dozens of Kaesong firms threatened withdrawal from the recently shuttered Kaesong Industrial Complex.

North Korea restored the line hours after South Korean companies lodged a threat to withdraw from the zone completely, having been unable to access the area since the complex was closed by Pyongyang on April 8.

“The hotline was restored this afternoon after North Korea accepted our request to normalize it,” a South Korean unification ministry official told ROK media early Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The hotline, maintained by the