A little over two months back, there was excitement in South Korea after the news that North Korea and South Korea were restoring the hotline that the North had cut off more than a year ago. The stalled hotline was opened after both countries held negotiations for months. (https://www.nknews.org/2021/07/stocks-surge-in-south-korea-on-hopes-of-renewed-inter-korean-projects)

The hopes of a thaw in the relationship between the two countries were dashed within weeks when North Korea resumed missile tests and aggressive statements against South Korea and the U.S. Pyongyang severed the hotlines in August in protest against South Korea-US military drills. North and South Korea are technically still at war as no peace agreement was reached when the Korean War ended in 1953. (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/30/nkoreas-kim-offers-to-restore-inter-korean-hotline-slams)

North Korea has perfected the art of flip-flop diplomacy. And it has gone on for decades where it alternates between raising tensions and ​​then cooling down by offering a few concessions. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un may be just borrowing from the old playbook.

For instance, the world thought that North Korea could be pulled back from the nuclear brink with U.S. President Donald Trump holding talks with Kim Jong-un in 2018, the first sit-down of an incumbent U.S. president and a North Korean leader, but the relations took a nosedive very soon. (https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/us-and-north-korea-blow-hot-and-cold-in-diplomatic-dance-over-nukes-20180805-p4zvle.html) This was preceded by a series of aggressive nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests bringing his country close to war with the U.S.

Observers recall how Kim Il-sung, the current dictator’s grandfather, had talked of reconciliation with South Korea even as he prepared for war that led to the 1950-53 Korean War. Under his father Kim Jong-il, both Koreas had spoken about co-hosting the 1988 Summer Olympics, while North Korea was planning to bomb South Korean airlines.

The reception to the offer from North Korea to open the hotline has been rather cold from South Korea, which knows that Kim could have something up his sleeve, yet again.

Read more:

What is North Korea’s latest offer:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58744150

Long history of North Korea’s blow hot and cold diplomacy:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/world/asia/north-korea-kim-jong-un.html