In a possible offer of reconciliation, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stated his willingness to reopen a vital communication line with South Korea. He also accused the United States of proposing talks while maintaining its "hostile policy" toward the North.

In August of this year, Pyongyang cut the hotlines in protest of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States. Mr. Kim's most recent remarks were made during Pyongyang's annual parliament session.

"The US touts 'diplomatic engagement,' but it is nothing more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community and concealing its hostile acts," state news outlet KCNA reported.

Mr. Kim, on the other hand, appeared to extend a conditional olive branch to South Korea.
He hopes to reopen communication lines by early October, but that depends on the "attitude of the South Korean authorities" and whether their relationship improves or remains in its "current state of deterioration," according to KCNA.

Mr. Kim's latest remarks echo those of his sister, who stated earlier this week that the North was willing to resume talks with the South if it ended its "hostile policies."

Kim Yo-jong said in a statement that South Korea must abandon its "double-dealing attitudes" and "hostile stand of justifying [its] own acts while faulting our... right to self-defense."

She went on to say that face-to-face talks to "declare the significant termination of war" could only take place once those conditions were met.

Because no peace treaty was reached when the Korean War ended in 1953, North and South Korea are technically still at war. Communication lines between the two have been cut – and then restored – several times in recent years.

After a failed summit between the North and South in 2020, Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean border office built to improve communications.