The two Koreas spoke over a hotline for the first time after nearly two years in a diplomatic breakthrough ahead of proposed bilateral talks on the North’s participation in the Winter Olympic Games.

North Korea’s decision to reopen the communication channel was announced on state TV on Wednesday after its leader Kim Jong Un abstained from making any provocations in his New Year’s Day speech and instead proposed holding talks on sending the North’s athletes to next month’s Winter Games.

Analysts expect the North Korean leader to follow through with his New Year’s Day overture.

“He cannot afford to be cavalier with these suggestions amid the current climate of extreme tensions because he knows that in reneging (on his offer), we no longer can take him at his word,” said Dr Graham Ong-Webb, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

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