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North Korea to bring mobile phones, radio car to DMZ summit

By Elizabeth Shim
North Korea has been permitted to bring wireless communication to the April 27 summit between Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI
North Korea has been permitted to bring wireless communication to the April 27 summit between Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

April 20 (UPI) -- North Korea wants to bring mobile phones to the summit between Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in next Friday.

The request from Pyongyang to bring mobile phones to the meeting also means the North wants to bring radio cars or "communication vehicles" to Panmunjom, a South Korean presidential Blue House official told the Chosun Ilbo on Friday.

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The request will be met so both North and South can bring their phones to the truce village, according to the report.

"The North Korean side first suggested the use of mobile phones in the Joint Security Area," the Blue House said. "We are now preparing to accept mobile phone calls at Panmunjom."

The area is under the control of the United Nations command and it is also a tense portion of the Korean demilitarized zone.

The request for wireless communications at the DMZ comes at a time Seoul has completed a direct hotline between Moon and Kim.

The phone now sits on Moon's desk at the Blue House, Yonhap reported Friday.

The initial test of the phone ran successfully, and the president's office said the quality of the call is "so good, it sounds like the caller is next door."

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Blue House official Yun Kun-young, director for the office's situation room, said phone calls went back and forth and conversations ran for about four minutes both ways.

A call from the South was picked up on the North side, with an officer responding "This is Pyongyang" upon receiving the call.

Song In-bae, a personal secretary to Moon, told the North side the "weather in Seoul is very good," and the North responded the weather is "also good" in Pyongyang.

"It was like they were next door," Song said.

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