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South and North Korea set up a military hotline Tuesday across the world's last Cold War frontier to avoid a possible conflict over demining work for a landmark inter-Korean path.
The first inter-Korean hotline was established between South and North Korean engineering squads which began clearing the buffer zone last Thursday, the South's defense ministry said.
"The line was hooked but both sides have yet to speak through it," a ministry official told AFP.
The two Koreas, still technically at war, have agreed to link up two railways and roads cut for half-a-century - one on the west coast and a second line on the east coast.
The demining operation is under way simultaneously at the two border sites in the the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which divides the Korean peninsula.
The DMZ is a four-kilometre (2.4-mile) wide buffer zone that runs 250 kilometers from sea to sea. It is uninhabited but strewn with millions of landmines.
South and North Korean officials have heralded the establishment of transport links as an historic breakthrough in efforts to unite the divided Korean peninsula.
(China Daily September 24, 2002)
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