North and South Korea opened talks Tuesday on further developing their joint industrial complex in the North despite Pyongyang's recent threat to break off all dialogue and negotiations, an official said, Reuters reported. Still, the two sides were meeting in the North's border city of Kaesong, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said. She had no other details. During the two days of talks, officials were expected to assess their joint tour of industrial parks in China and Vietnam undertaken in December to get ideas about how to further develop the Kaesong complex. Kaesong, which combines South Korean capital and technology with cheap North Korean labor, is the most prominent symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. About 110 South Korean factories employ some 42,000 North Korean workers. On Monday, North Korea issued a statement renewing the country's demand that international sanctions be lifted before it will return to stalled negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs. The statement, issued by North Korea's Foreign Ministry, said «it is nonsensical for the (North) to sit at the negotiating table with those countries that violate its sovereignty.»
