Koreas to launch joint liaison office on Sep 14

North and South Korea will officially inaugurate their joint liaison office on Friday with an aim to bolster inter-Korean cooperation and improve cross-border exchange and contacts.

The office will be officially launched in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. The inauguration is a follow-up of the agreement made by the leaders of North and South Korea, Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in, during the first inter-Korean summit between them at the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) in April, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"The liaison office will become a round-the-clock consultation and communication channel for advancing inter-Korean relations, easing military tensions and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula," the South Korean unification ministry said in a press release.

"We expect that South-North Korean relations will be managed in a stable manner through 24-hour communication, 365 days of the year, which is also expected to be conducive to advancing relations between North Korea and the United States," it added.

From South Korea, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung will lead a delegation while from the North Korean side, a vice chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, that is responsible for maintaining inter-Korean exchange, will be attending the ceremony.

Also, South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and top North Korean official, Ri Son-kwon, who were involved in previous high-level talks will be participating in the event.

After the liaison office becomes operational, both North and South Korea will have 20 officials each to discuss various issues to strengthen inter-Korean cooperation. The two sides will also ink a pact on how to operate the office.

The office, which is the first-of-its-kind, was supposed to be opened last month but got delayed. The opening comes ahead of Moon's scheduled visit to Pyongyang next week to meet Kim for the third time.

The two leaders are expected to hold deliberations on further ways to enhance inter-Korean cooperation and denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.