SKorea agrees to more talks with NKorea to try to solve Kaesong industrial complex dispute

        
The government of South Korea accepted North Korea's suggestion on Wednesday to hold a new round of talks meant to restart a jointly run factory park shuttered since Pyongyang pulled out its 53,000 workers in April amid tensions with the south.            

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, accepted the North's proposal for talks on 14 August, a day before a holiday in both Koreas that celebrates independence from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule.             

"We hope that reasonable measures come out from this dialogues to solve the Kaesong Industrial Complex issues," said Kim Hyung-sik, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman.           
South Korean businesses with operations at Kaesong welcomed the development.            

The park had survived previous periods of tension between the rivals, including attacks blamed on Pyongyang that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010, and the shutdown of other big cooperation projects             

"To prepare for the normalization of the operation, we wish to immediately send our facility repair team to visit the area for the maintenance of the facilities which are corroding at this moment," said Han Jae-kwon, president of the Emergency Measures Committee for Urging Normalizing Kaesong Industrial Complex.             

Later on Wednesday North Korea said it was lifting a ban on operations at the complex.           

The agreement revives hope for the resumption of production at the now-suspended Kaesong complex, the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation from an earlier period of detente.             

The park combined South Korean initiative, capital and technology with cheap North Korean labour.           

It was also a rare source of hard currency for North Korea, though the economically depressed country chafed at suggestions that it needed the money Kaesong generated.              
Pyongyang's moves to ban South Korean managers from crossing the border to their jobs in Kaesong and then withdrawing its workers from the park came as the North issued a torrent of warlike threats in March and April, including vows of nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul.            

Pyongyang said it was angry over annual US-South Korean military drills and UN sanctions over North Korea's February nuclear test - the country's third such test since 2006.           
There have been recent attempts at tentative diplomacy by the Koreas, but tensions could rise again this month as South Korea and the United States are scheduled to begin a joint military exercise on 19 August.                  


AP