First liaison office opened for the two Koreas

The two 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 fax-like communication channels when they want to arrange talks and exchange messages. But those channels have been often suspended when tensions rose over North Korea’s nuclear program.

In an opening ceremony at Kaesong, South Korea’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said the office will become the “cradle of Korean co-prosperity.”

TIME/AP