South Korea on Friday pressed North Korea to agree to talks for the re-opening of a shuttered jointly run industrial complex near the border.
Seoul said Pyongyang must act soon on its call for a meeting about the Kaesong industrial complex, where operations have been suspended since April 9.
“We are keeping close tabs on all developments, but the North has not expressed its position so far,” said Kim Hyung Suk, a spokesman for the South’s Ministry of Unification.
Kim said Seoul wants to maintain and expand the Kaesong complex, which began operations in 2004 as a project for cooperation, and a source of hard currency for the impoverished North.
“All that remains is for the North to make its decision to resolve the issue,” he added.
If Pyongyang does not agree to talks, Seoul “will take appropriate action,” Kim said, according to the Yonhap News Agency. Earlier reports said Seoul had laid down a deadline of Friday noon (0300 GMT).
Kim declined to say what action would be taken, but there has been speculation that South Korea would ask its companies to remove their remaining workers from the industrial park in the North Korean border town.
There were still 175 South Korean workers at Kaesong, out of 800 who normally work there.
Operations at the 123 South Korean companies in the complex came to a halt on April 9, when Pyongyang pulled out all of its 53,000 labourers who worked for the companies.
Six days earlier, the North blocked South Korean personnel and supplies from entering the complex, but allowed people to leave.
The standoff comes as the North ratcheted up tensions in the peninsula after its third nuclear test on February 12, triggering condemnation from the international community.