Koreas reactivate cross-border hotline and speak on it amid rising tensions over North's recent missile tests

North and South Korea restored their cross-border hotline on Monday, a step Seoul said could help improve relations after Pyongyang sparked global concern with a string of missile tests in recent weeks.

The two sides resumed communications with officials exchanging their first phone call since August, days after the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting over the North Korea's latest missile tests.

The two Koreas had signaled a surprise thaw in relations in late July by announcing the resumption of cross-border communications -- severed more than a year earlier -- but the detente was short-lived, as Pyongyang stopped answering calls just two weeks later.