Exchange of mails: first in half century

A total of 300 families split between South and North Korea exchanged letters on Thursday via the truce village of Panmunjom, the first such exchange since the national division in 1945.

The Korea National Red Cross (KNRC), after telephoning the recipients of the mail, will forward the letters to them by Friday, along with KNRC instructions on what the families may and may not do with the letters.

A related Red Cross official said that the South Korean side brought mailbags containing letters from the South to Panmunjom Friday morning, made contact with liaison officials and exchanged the correspondence with the North Korean side for a period of about 45 minutes starting at 2 p.m.

The official stressed that the large-scale inter-Korean exchange was the first since the South and North Korean Red Cross societies made their initial contact in the early 1970s. He added that the KNRC would strive to facilitate more exchanges of correspondence in the future.