It had been almost two years. But on Wednesday, North Korea finally called. A special cross-border phone hotline has reopened, marking the restart of direct dialogue and a possible thaw in relations between North and South Korea. For decades, the two enemies had conducted daily check-in phone calls using the special phone system installed in the so-called truce village of Panmunjom, a place created in the wake of the Korean War armistice in 1953 to foster open communications and negotiation. It was the one area along the heavily fortified demilitarized zone where soldiers and officials could speak and meet face to face. But in 2016, North Korea pulled the plug on the hotline, after the South had shut down a jointly run industrial project. South Korea continued to place the daily calls from their phone in the Freedom House. But about 300 feet away, the North Koreans did not pick up the line. Even when there was an urgent message to deliver, like news about North Korean fishermen being rescued, South Koreans were forced to use a megaphone to shout across the border. The lack of communication channel has raised increasing concerns about misunderstandings or accidental military clashes amid the escalating rhetoric between North Korean president Kim Jong-un and President Trump. Just this week, both Koreas resorted to television broadcasts to send messages about the upcoming Olympic games in South Korea. Then, the phone inside Freedom House started ringing again.