NORTH KOREA said it was reopening the troubled Kaesong industrial zone jointly run with the South just minutes after Seoul signaled its willingness to let it close for good.

    The North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles Pyongyang’s ties with Seoul, on Wednesday proposed talks aimed at normalizing the project and said the safety of South Koreans visiting the factory park would be guaranteed.

    The comments were carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency about 90 minutes after South Korea announced steps to pay US$250 million compensation to its firms that operate factories in Kaesong for losses — a step widely seen as a move towards shutting down the rivals’ last symbol of cooperation.

    The decision to pay 109 South Korean small and medium-sized manufacturers from a government insurance fund came after the North went for 10 days without responding to what Seoul said was its “final offer” for talks aimed at reopening the project.

    Representatives of the South Korean firms with plants in the complex had earlier held a rally near the border, urging both Seoul and Pyongyang to find a way out of the impasse.

    The South welcomed the North’s change of heart and accepted the proposal for talks to be held Aug. 14 in Kaesong.

    North Korea shut down the factories, a few kilometers from the border, in April, pulling out all 53,000 of its workers and banning South Korean firms from crossing the border with supplies at the height of nuclear tensions. (SD-Agencies)