North Korea offers talks with south over Kaesong The roadblocks at the entrance to Kaesong, on the South Korean side. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP North Korea has proposed official talks with South Korea to normalise commercial projects, including the Kaesong industrial zone that was shut down at the height of tensions between the rivals in early April. North Korea's state-owned KCNA news agency also said the government would restore severed communications channels if the south accepted the offer of talks, indicating it was prepared to roll back a series of steps it has taken since March that reinforced the deterioration in relations between the two sides. North Korea, in a statement by its Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles ties with the south, also proposed discussing the reopening of tours to a mountain resort, family reunions and events to mark the 2000 summit of the two countries' leaders that opened a decade of warmer ties. "We propose holding talks between authorities of the north and the south for the normalisation of the operation in the KIZ [Kaesong industrial zone] and the resumption of tours of Mount Kumgang on the occasion of the anniversary of the 15 June joint declaration," the committee said. The June declaration refers to the outcome of the 2000 summit between then South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and the north's Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011. South Korea has previously proposed to hold talks with the north on reopening the Kaesong zone, but Seoul has been reluctant to link those talks with the summit commemoration, saying Pyongyang would try to use them for propaganda. It was not immediately clear whether Seoul would consider the north's statement as an acceptance of its offer for talks. Officials at the unification ministry, which handles Seoul's ties with Pyongyang, could not immediately be reached for comment. From the beginning of March, North Korea has threatened to attack the south and US military bases in the Pacific using its missile and nuclear arsenal, driving tensions to the highest point in decades.