South begins exercises, North won't pick up phone

South Korea's military began its annual Hwarang exercises Monday with local governments, police and firefighting authorities to maintain comprehensive defensive readiness against North Korea's military threats, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Soldiers from the South Korean Army's II Corps take part in the Hwarang exercise in October last year. [REPUBLIC OF KOREA ARMY II CORPS]

South Korea's military began its annual Hwarang exercises Monday with local governments, police and firefighting authorities to maintain comprehensive defensive readiness against North Korea's escalating military threats, according to Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The first exercise kicked off in Daegu and surrounding North Gyeongsang and will run for five days, the JCS said.

Hwarang exercises will take place in other regions of the country each month until October.

According to military officials, the exercises will entail rehearsals for conducting evacuations and executing contingency plans in the event of an imminent nuclear or missile attack by the North and responses to other potential emergencies, such as a terrorist act or cyber-attack by unknown actors.

The Hwarang exercise began on the fourth day since North Korea failed to respond to South Korean attempts to establish contact via the inter-Korean liaison line and a military hotline.

The Unification Ministry said the same day that Pyongyang seems to have "unilaterally" cut contact via the liaison line.

The North has not answered regularly scheduled calls since Friday, including calls made by the South on Monday morning and afternoon.

The two sides usually conduct phone calls twice a day at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. via the inter-Korean liaison line, except during weekends.

Attempts to make contact with the North via a military hotline were also unsuccessful for the fourth straight day Monday, according to Defense Ministry.

Although the Unification Ministry said Friday it has not ruled out the possibility that technical problems on the North Korean side are responsible for the lack of response, the ministry told reporters Monday that there was a greater likelihood that the North simply decided to cease responding amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Regular phone calls via inter-Korean communication lines have previously gone unanswered.

Pyongyang failed to respond to a regular call through the liaison line last June due to technical problems caused by heavy rains.

The North has also twice unilaterally suspended contact via the inter-Korean liaison line.

Pyongyang restored the inter-Korean hotline in July 2021, a year after it severed the channel in anger over South Korean activists launching leaflets critical of the regime by balloon over the inter-Korean border.

The North also suspended the liaison line in August of that year amid joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises but restored communications two months later.

Unification Ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam told reporters at a regular press briefing on Monday that the South Korean government "is reviewing how to respond," adding, "it will not take long for us to issue an official stance."

In response to the lack of response from the North, the U.S. Air Force dispatched a Boeing RC-135V reconnaissance aircraft from Okinawa to the skies above Seoul and Gangwon to monitor the situation, South Korean military officials said.

The RC-135V is fitted with an advanced sensor suite capable of detecting missile launches that take place 480 kilometers (300 miles) away.

The United States Forces Korea also dispatched a Beechcraft RC-12X Guardrail signals intelligence aircraft to the skies north of Seoul.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]