The North Korean government also proposed new talks with the South, to start next week, on the future of the complex, whose 53,000 North Korean workers were employed by South Korean firms. North also pledged to guarantee the safety of South Korean managers who run the complex.

The announcement, released in a statement carried by the KCNA news agency in the North, signalled a thaw in relations between the two countries, which hit a low over the winter when the North's detonation of a nuclear device prompted tough new sanctions by the United Nations against the country.

GERRY MULLANY