Kim wants to restore hotlines with S. Korea

North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un had ordered officials to restore stalled communication lines with South Korea to promote peace in early October, while he shrugged off recent U.S. offers for dialogue by calling them “more cunning ways” to conceal its hostility against the North.

Kim’s comments carried in a state media report are an apparent effort to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington as he wants South Korea to help him win relief from crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions and other concessions. In recent days, Pyongyang offered conditional talks with Seoul while performing its first missile tests in six months and stepping up its criticism of the United States.

The United States, United Kingdom and France called for an emergency closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday morning on North Korea’s recent tests, including its first reported hypersonic missile test this week.