SEOUL, September 2 (Itar-Tass) - South and North Korea reopened their military hotline in a western district on Wednesday, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

Pyongyang suspended the hotline due to technical problems more that a year ago.

The direct communication channel began normal operation after tests on Monday.

South Korea and North Korea have two military hotlines in the west and in the east. The western line was used for communications regarding South Korean workers and cargo trucks commuting to a joint industrial park in the North’s border town of Kaesong. Through the eastern line, South Korea had notified the North of tourists visiting the North's Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast, the agency reported.

North Korea suspended the western hotline in May last year. Until December the two Koreas exchanged the information through the eastern line until Pyongyang cut communication to protest Seoul’s hard-line policy against North Korea. The eastern line resumed its work in August following Pyongyang’s series of steps to normalize relations with the South.