North and South Korea agree to talk on industrial zone

After months of unsettling tensions, North and South Korea agreed Thursday to hold talks about reopening their shared manufacturing zone where Pyongyang halted activity in April.

The North proposed the meeting to discuss the shuttered Kaesong Industrial Zone -- a major symbol of cooperation between the two countries -- along with other issues in a statement published by state-run media.

"The venue of the talks and the date for their opening can be set to the convenience of the south side," it said.

The South Korean Unification Ministry responded positively, saying, "We hope the talks between the two authorities will be a great opportunity to build trust between South and North."

It said the timing, agenda and other aspects of the talks would be announced later.

As tensions flared on the Korean Peninsula in April, Kim Jong Un's regime began blocking South Koreans from entering the Kaesong complex, which sits on the North's side of the heavily fortified border and houses the operations of more than 120 South Korean companies.

Pyongyang then pulled out the more than 50,000 North Koreans who work in the zone's factories, saying it was temporarily suspending activity there. The last South Koreans in the zone left last month.

The move surprised some observers since Kaesong was considered an important source of hard currency for Kim Jong Un's regime.

The North's menacing rhetoric against the United States and South Korea hit a fever pitch in March and April after the U.N. Security Council voted in March to slap tougher sanctions on the regime and amid U.S.-South Korean military drills in the region. The U.N. sanctions were in response to the North's third underground nuclear test, which took place in February.

The U.S.-South Korean military exercises have since ended, and Pyongyang has toned down the frequency and intensity of its threats.

Previous suggestions by the North and South of ways to resolve the situation at the industrial zone had failed to gain traction.


/CNN/