North Korea has failed to respond to phone calls from the South, just weeks after the two countries restored hotlines, officials in Seoul say. It comes hours after the influential sister of North Korea’s leader said the South should pay a price for holding military drills with the US. The drills have increased tensions weeks after the hotlines were restored. Kim Yo-jong, sister of leader Kim Jong-un, said the North would strengthen its pre-emptive strike capabilities. The two Koreas remain technically at war after a conflict between the two sides ended in 1953 with an armistice, rather than a peace treaty. They typically check in with each other twice a day over two hotlines. North Korea cut the lines in June 2020 as relations soured following a failed peace summit.(BBC)…[+]