TOKYO/SEOUL — North Korea still did not answer South Korea's phone calls via liaison and military hotlines Monday even after the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the two Koreas could discuss improvements in long-strained relations, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"It is more important than anything else to have communication in a smooth and stable manner so as to realize denuclearization, the establishment of lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, and the advancement of relations between the South and the North through dialogue and cooperation," the South Korean Unification Ministry said.

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, issued two statements last week in which she said the two Koreas could discuss improvement in inter-Korean relations, reestablishment of the Kaesong liaison office and even a summit on conditions that Seoul drops its double-standard and hostile attitudes against it.

Her statements followed South Korean President Moon Jae-in's offer for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War in his UN speech. Inter-Korean relations have remained in a deadlock since the no-deal summit between the US and North Korea in early 2019.

The ties chilled further after North Korea blew up the Kaesong liaison office and cut off all cross-border communication lines in protest of anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from the South.

The lines went briefly back online in late July, but the North has not answered Seoul's regular calls again as it bristled at joint military drills by South Korea and the US.

The two Koreas are still technically at war, as the Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

The Unification Ministry saw Kim's statements as positive and expressed hope for the resumption of cross-border communication and dialogue. — Agencies