( CNN ) -- North Korea and South Korea agreed Wednesday to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex , a joint manufacturing zone that the North shuttered amid high tensions in April . It was n't immediately clear when the zone -- considered to be an important source of hard currency for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un 's regime -- will reopen . As part of the agreement , both governments said that the zone 's operation would no longer be `` affected by political situations under any circumstance . '' `` I hope that the agreement today will be a chance for South-North relations to make a new start , '' South Korean President Park Geun-hye said after the deal was revealed . The announcement came after multiple rounds of talks with the South , aimed at getting the shuttered factories at Kaesong back up and running . Four months ago , North Korea expelled South Korean workers and suspended activity at the zone , which sits on the North 's side of the Koreas ' demilitarized zone , as it unleashed a torrent of threatening rhetoric toward South Korea and the United States . But the tensions have since eased , and the generally secretive North recently allowed a large Western media contingent to cover the 60th anniversary of the armistice that stopped the Korean War in 1953 . Wednesday 's agreement also calls for a joint panel to discuss compensating South Korean companies that were hurt by the shuttering . About 53,000 North Koreans worked at more than 120 South Korean companies at the complex , seen as a key symbol of inter-Korean cooperation . It produced hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods yearly . The closure was the zone 's first since its debut nine years ago . CNN 's Elizabeth Joseph and Jethro Mullen and journalist Soo Bin Park contributed to this report .
They agree that it will no longer be affected by political situations . North Korea had suspended operations at the industrial complex in 2010 during tensions . It 's not clear when the complex will reopen .