Dorasan (South Korea): The buffer zone dividing the two Koreas for five decades was officially opened for the first time on September 18 for the establishment of road and rail links cut off for five decades.

Soldiers unbolted a metal gate in the three-metre high barbed-wire-topped fence that runs the length of the buffer zone as South Korean politicians, officials and foreign diplomats looked on.

Fireworks exploded as a South Korean girl dressed in pure white and symbolising the North emerged from behind the fence holding a single red rose and linked hands with a boy, representing the South, dressed in a dark suit also carrying a single rose.

Television footage showed ceremonies also underway on the Eastern tip of the buffer zone. North Korea had also launched simultaneous ceremonies, MBC television said.

The ground-breaking ceremonies were for the establishment of rail and road links between the two Koreas that have been cut off since the 1950-53 Korean War.

South Korea's Prime Minister-designate Kim Suk-Soo said the event opened "a new era" and Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message of congratulations to South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-II.

"We are burying a history marked by the scars of war and the pain of division," Kim told the gathering of some 700 people including numerous defectors from the North.

The establishment of transport links has been heralded here as a historic breakthrough in efforts to unite the rival North and South.