The South Korean and Chinese governments have agreed to launch a military hotline between the two by the end of this year.
A spokesman for Seoul’s Ministry of Defense, Kim Min-seok, said in a press briefing Monday that the two neighbors will discuss details during bilateral defense talks in Beijing on Tuesday.
The establishment of a hotline was first agreed upon last year, with little progress made since then. But the issue is moving forward again following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Seoul.
The United States is the only country that currently operates a military hotline with South Korea.
A hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to a preselected location.
(Jee Abbey Lee contributed to this report, which was produced in collaboration with the VOA Korean service.)
