A group of South Korean businessmen was to visit a joint industrial complex in North Korea on Monday amid the ongoing row over the North's unilateral bid to hike wages for North Korean workers there.

The North unilaterally decided to raise the minimum wage by 5.18 percent to US$74 per month starting in March for North Korean workers hired by the 124 South Korean small- and medium-sized firms at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North's border city of the same name.

Monday is the deadline for South Korean firms to pay March wages for the around 53,000 North Korean workers while the latest inter-Korean talks on the wage dispute have failed to produce a breakthrough.

The group of South Korean businessmen with factories in the complex was poised to make a one-day visit to the park again to protest the North's decision following a similar visit on April 7, according to company officials.

South Korean firms have been squeezed as the Seoul government has requested them not to accept the North's decision while the North has threatened to collect arrears if they do not pay higher wages.

In what could be a temporary compromise, the North is known to have accepted a request by the South Korean firms. They will first pay their workers the current minimum wage, and if the new minimum wage is approved, the companies will pay the difference later, according to company officials.

"What we've internally decided is to pay the March wages first in accordance with the Seoul government's guidance. And we will pay the North's workers more later if the new wage is accepted in inter-Korean talks," a group official said.

Seoul has not accepted the North's unilateral move, saying that Pyongyang violated a 2004 agreement that calls for two quasi-government committees from each side to set the wages together. The wage cap has been set at 5 percent per year.

The South's unification ministry reiterated its stance over the issue, calling on North Korea to honor the agreement for the operation of the industrial complex.

"There is no change in Seoul's stance that the wage dispute should be resolved through consultations," Lim Byeong-cheol, spokesman at the unification ministry, said at a press briefing.

None of the South Korean firms have paid March wages, Lim added.

"We plan to come up with measures to minimize any potential damage to South Korean firms, such as providing them with financial compensation," he said.

South Korea is concerned that the wage row could set a precedent for the North to make unilateral decisions on the operations of the industrial park.

The Kaesong Industrial Complex opened in the early 2000s, the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. It has served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped communist North. (Yonhap)