"The Koreas should discuss ways of normalizing the industrial park through dialogue."
Seoul (ANTARA News/Yonhap) - South Korea`s unification minister said Thursday he hopes North Korea will immediately come to the negotiating table to discuss the normalization of a suspended inter-Korean industrial complex in the North`s border town of Kaesong.

On Tuesday, operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex ground to a halt as North Korean laborers failed to show up for work, a day after Pyongyang threatened to withdraw all of its workers and suspend operations.

"The Koreas should discuss ways of normalizing the industrial park through dialogue," Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said in a hurriedly called press conference. "Pyongyang should come to the bargaining table immediately."

The suspension of the complex -- a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation and reconciliation -- does not help the future of the Korean people and is causing severe pain to South Korean firms and workers there, said Ryoo, Seoul`s top official in charge of handling affairs with Pyongyang.

Touching on the North`s weeks-long provocative actions, the minister called on Pyongyang to "stop heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula."

"The North should stop actions that threaten the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asian region and start behaving as a responsible member of the international community," Ryoo said.

In a follow-up to the conference, a unification official said the minister`s statement is not Seoul`s official proposal for talks. It means South Korea will have two options open; either Seoul or Pyongyang will first officially propose talks, he said.

The statement came as the North is preparing for a provocative missile launch in the East Sea in the following days.

Inter-Korean relations have fallen to the lowest level in decades as the North took a series of provocative actions, nullifying the armistice agreements ending the 1950-53 Korean War, severing the military hotline and paralyzing the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
(T.A045/H-AK)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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