South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) reopened Monday their aviation hotline, which was cut months ago after South Korea blamed the sinking of its warship on the DPRK, the unification ministry said.

Officials on the both sides made a call via the hotline in the morning, the first call since Pyongyang severed it in May in protest over Seoul's punitive measures against Pyongyang for the deadly sinking, unification ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters in a briefing.

The reopened hot line, one of three hotlines between the two sides, connects the principal international airports--Pyongyang in the North and Incheon in the South.

The DPRK proposed reviving the communication line on Saturday, Chun said.

The move comes at a sensitive time when icy ties between the two sides are showing signs of thawing with a series of inter- Korean meetings lined up.

The two sides are scheduled to hold Red Cross talks and reunions later this month for families divided by the civil war decades ago, which observers say will help bring the estranged neighbors a bit closer.