North Korea calls for Kaesong talks North Korea has called for talks next Wednesday with South Korea over their stalled economic co-operation project at Kaesong. Hopes for the Kaesong Industrial Complex were fading after Pyongyang failed for more than a week to respond to Seoul's most recent plea for dialogue. IN North Korea Earlier in the day, South Korea's government had said it would authorise the payment of insurance claims to 109 companies that had invested in Kaesong. The payout, worth Won280.9bn ($251m), was widely interpreted as a step towards the permanent shutdown of the industrial park. Launched in 2003, the park was the last surviving joint project from a warmer phase in inter-Korean relations. Pyongyang suspended operations there in April, at a time of heightened tensions, when North Korea threatened to launch a nuclear strike to protest at international sanctions and South Korea's joint military drills with the US. Six rounds of talks, between July 6 and 26, failed to produce an agreement on the resumption of operations at the KIC, which had hosted 123 South Korean companies employing about 53,000 North Korean workers. But North Korea broke its silence on Wednesday by delivering its call for talks on August 14 through the inter-Korean communications link at Panmunjom, a spokesperson for South Korea's unification ministry said. The move was also announced on North Korean state television. "They said they will allow the South Korean tenant companies to enter [Kaesong], and once the companies are ready for operation, they will allow the workers to be present," the spokesperson said, adding that Seoul expected to give a formal response to the message later on Wednesday.