North Korea Tests South Korea With Phone Delay at Joint Office

  • Joint project allowed rivals to communicate around the clock
  • Kim Jong Un’s sister lashes out at South Korea over leaflets

South and North Korean officials attend an opening ceremony of a joint liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea, Sept. 2018.

Photographer: AFP via Getty Images

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North Korea tested the patience of South Korea by delaying a regularly scheduled phone conversation at a liaison office, after saying it was abolishing the project that once allowed the rivals to communicate around the clock.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Monday a morning phone call to the North Korean delegation at the facility in the North Korean border city of Kaesong went unanswered, ministry spokesman Yoh Sang-key told reporters, adding it was a first since the office opened in 2018.