North Korea has stopped responding to regularly scheduled calls with South Korea as military tensions rise.
South Korean government officials announced Friday that its northern neighbor has failed to respond via the two-way military liaison line normally used twice a day.
"The North was unresponsive to the closing call via the joint liaison hotline at 5 p.m. after it did not answer the opening call at 9 a.m.," South Korea's unification ministry said, according to Yonhap News Agency.
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A two-way phone line connects representatives of both North and South Korea for logistical and diplomatic purposes.
It is normally used twice daily — once at 9 a.m. and again at 5 p.m.
South Korean officials claimed there is no defect or failure of the communication technology itself, indicating that North Korea is being willfully uncommunicative.
The unprecedented silence comes amid intense military pressure from the U.S. military and its allies in the Pacific.
NORTH KOREAN STATE MEDIA SAYS US-SOUTH KOREA MILITARY DRILLS PUSH REGION TO 'BRINK OF A NUCLEAR WAR'
North Korea state media warned Thursday that recent U.S.-South Korea military drills are pushing the security situation in the region to "the brink of a nuclear war."
The fiery remarks came a day after the U.S. military flew nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over the Korean Peninsula during joint exercises with South Korea. Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz also participated in naval anti-submarine drills this week alongside U.S., South Korean and Japanese destroyers.
"The U.S. kicked off different largest-ever joint military drills against the DPRK simultaneously despite the latter's repeated grave warnings, pushing the security situation of the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war," read an article published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday.
