North and South Korean officials on Thursday opened rare talks over a protracted wage dispute at the jointly operated Kaesong industrial zone in the North.

North and South Korean officials on Thursday opened rare talks over a protracted wage dispute at the jointly operated Kaesong industrial zone in the North.

The two sides have been mired in a months-long row over wages at the Kaesong estate, just 10 kilometers (six miles) over the border in North Korea, with Pyongyang insisting on unilaterally imposing a pay rise for its workers.

Seoul had insisted that any wage change must be a joint decision.

North Korea last week agreed to reopen a joint committee in charge of running the industrial park for the first time in more than a year to discuss the wage dispute.

A five-member South Korean government delegation was received by their North Korean counterparts at a conference hall at the industrial zone.

The industrial estate, a joint enterprise between Pyongyang and Seoul, hosts around 120 South Korean firms employing some 53,000 North Korean workers.

Kaesong opened in 2004 and had survived repeated inter-Korean crises that closed off every other avenue of cooperation.

But in 2013, the North effectively shut down the zone for five months by withdrawing its workers following a surge in military tensions. Many firms are still reeling from financial losses from the shutdown.

Cross-border tensions have remained high this year due to a series of North Korean ballistic missile tests, nuclear threats and annual US-South Korean military exercises.