Seoul - North and South Korea exchanged mail for 600 families yesterday, the first contact in more than 50 years for the relatives.
The exchange marks a small step towards healing decades of pain for the families, long separated by the world's most fortified border.
"We exchanged 300 letters from each side with North Korean officials at Panmunjom [the neutral UN border village] after checking their names and addresses," said a spokesman for South Korea's Red Cross.
The Red Cross plans to post the letters from the North to South Korean families today.