The two Koreas are in conflict. In this conflict they signal toughness, threats or conciliation in a variety of ways, being constantly in a cycle of giving or taking, making concessions or removing them.

Unfortunately, Pyongyang views the direct North-South hotline system as subject to this relationship, raising risks of miscommunication when crises arise. They cut the hotline this year following the South’s closure of the Kaesong Industrial Park.

The “original hotline” between enemies was the Moscow-Washington link, established in 1963 after the Cuban Missile Crisis had taken the world to the brink of nuclear war. During that crisis, messages from