North Korea will restore cross-border communications with South Korea, Seoul's Unification Ministry says, in a sign of thawing relations between the bitter rivals.
The head of the North Korean agency handling cross-border relations said on Wednesday it will open the dialogue channel at the shared border village of Panmunjom in the afternoon, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports.
The countries have not used the communications channel since 2016 due to increasing tensions over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, a Unification Ministry spokeswoman said.
"I believe it signals a move toward an environment where communication will be possible at all times," South Korean presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said.
South Korean media, citing a North Korean official, also reported that leader Kim Jong Un had welcomed Seoul's support for his peace offer.
South Korea, which is hosting the upcoming Winter Olympics, on Tuesday offered to hold high-level talks after Kim extended the South a rare olive branch by offering to meet to discuss the Games.
China and the International Olympic Committee welcomed the possibility of talks, which would be the first between North and South Korea in just over two years.
US President Donald Trump hinted earlier that he was also open to talks between the two countries; "Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!," he wrote on Twitter.
Sanctions and other pressure on the North Korean regime were "beginning to have a big impact," Trump added.
Pyongyang is under some of the strongest sanctions ever imposed by the UN and US after a series of missile and nuclear tests enraged world powers.
However, hours after his first tweet, Trump mocked Kim's claim to have a "nuclear button" on his desk, saying he had one too but his was "much bigger" and "more powerful" than the young North Korean leader's.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, says she hopes a reported upcoming North Korean missile test won't go ahead.
"But if it does we must bring more measures to bear on the North Korean regime," she added.
"We will never accept a nuclear North Korea."
Kim used a New Year's Day address on Monday to declare that his nuclear weapons programme had been successfully completed and that all of the United States was within range of North Korea's missiles.
