Koreas open 1st liaison office for better communication

SEOUL, South Korea — The rival Koreas on Friday opened their first liaison office near their tense border to facilitate better communication and exchanges ahead of their leaders’ summit in Pyongyang next week.

The office’s opening in the North Korean border town of Kaesong is the latest in a series of reconciliatory steps the Koreas have taken this year. The office is the first of its kind since the Koreas were divided at the end of World War II in 1945.

The Koreas so far have been using telephone and faxlike communication channels when they want to arrange talks and exchange messages. But those channels have often been suspended when tensions rose over North Korea’s nuclear program.

About 15 to 20 South Korean officials will work at the office and sleep at nearby lodgings in Kaesong. They will deal with an equal number of North Korean officials stationed at the office to discuss various inter-Korean issues, exchange messages from their capitals and facilitate civilian exchange programs, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

Kaesong is where the Koreas’ now-stalled jointly run factory complex is located. The park, which combined South Korean initiatives, capital and technology with North Korea’s inexpensive labor, was seen as a test case for unification of the Koreas.

The liaison office’s opening came before South Korean President Moon Jaein and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet next week for the third time this year to discuss denuclearization of the peninsula and other issues.