This file photo, taken from the South Korean border city of Paju on Sept. 8, 2020, shows the South Korea-built support center for the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, which was severely damaged by the indirect impact of the North's destruction of the inter-Korean liaison office adjacent to the center in June of that year. North Korea marked the 72nd anniversary of the North Korean government's establishment the next day. (Yonhap)The unification ministry urged North Korea on Tuesday to restore inter-Korean communication lines immediately as this week marks one year since the cross-border communication lines were suspended.

On June 16 last year, the North vowed to cut off all communication lines with the South and even blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in its border city of Kaesong in anger over anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets coming in from the South.

"The inter-Korean communication channel must be immediately restored without any conditions... we urge North Korea to restore the inter-Korean communication lines," the ministry official said.

"The inter-Korean communication channel is the most fundamental means of communication, and the two Koreas have agreed to maintain such a channel several times," she added. 

Relations between the two Koreas have remained chilly, with the North not responding to offers for talks and cross-border cooperation since a no-deal summit between Pyongyang and Washington in February 2019. (Yonhap)