海角大神

After months of negotiations, North Korea has agreed to reopen a jointly-run industrial park that has been a bellwether for North-South relations.

In the middle of North Korea鈥檚 bluster this year, Pyongyang threatened that it was readying its military for war and issued warnings about how unhappy it was with South Korea and the US, even going so far as to cut a critical Korea-Korea phone line.

Still, analysts pointed out that we鈥檇 been there before.

The move to watch for, many said, was any sudden closure of a jointly run industrial complex just across the border in North Korea. The Kaesong industrial park is staffed by both North and South Koreans and is an economic boon to both and the biggest symbol of cooperation between them. Since it was opened in 2004, the North had never shut it down, despite tensions.

So as long as Kaesong was running, the thinking went, all of North Korea鈥檚 rhetoric could be considered just that. 聽

But when North Korea barred South Korean workers from coming across the border to work and then eventually shut down the industrial park in April, it took many analysts by surprise and ratcheted tensions to a new high. One analyst the Monitor spoke with said North Korea鈥檚 young leader was trying to make a point, and predicted the factory would only be temporarily shut.

鈥淚 think it has something to do with comments by Western and South Korean observers who say that North Korea wouldn鈥檛 give up the聽Kaesong聽Complex no matter what, that North Korea needs the business too much. They took that as kind of insulting to their leadership,鈥� says Moon Chung-in, a professor at Yonsei University,聽in聽Seoul.

More from Reuters:聽

SEOUL, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Rivals North and聽South Korea聽agreed on Wednesday to restart their troubled joint industrial park after a series of talks on the fate of the last symbol of economic cooperation, raising hopes of possible improvement in political ties.

A joint statement said the two sides had agreed to work together to get the聽Kaesong industrial zone, inside聽North Korea聽and just a few miles from the heavily armed border, up and running again and prevent another shutdown.

It did not give a date.

South Korean President聽Park Geun-hye聽welcomed the decision, saying she hoped "today's talks will be the beginning of a new start of South and聽North Korea聽relations," media said.

North Korea聽pulled its 53,000 workers out of the park at the height of tensions between the two sides in April, with the North threatening the聽United States聽and the South with nuclear attack.

Reclusive聽North Korea, for which聽Kaesong聽has been a rare source of hard currency, and the South, one of the richest countries in the world, are technically still at war as their 1950-53 civil conflict ended not in a treaty but a mere truce.

"South and North guarantee the industrial zone's normal operation ... without influence of any kind from the political situation," the statement said, noting that they would jointly hold an overseas investors' event.

Since it opened in 2004, the聽Kaesong聽complex聽has generated roughly $90 million annually in wages paid directly to the聽North's state agency聽that manages the zone.

The companies had no oversight on how much was paid to the workers, most of whom were women on assembly lines.

Earlier this year,聽North Korea聽threatened nuclear strikes against the South and the聽United States聽after the聽United Nations聽tightened sanctions against it for conducting its third nuclear test in February.

The reopening of Kaesong聽is seen as addressing the political interests of the democratic South and the economic interests of the North that is so poor it can't feed its people.

聽(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Nick Macfie)