South Korea's unification ministry called on North Korea on Wednesday to meet to discuss the operation of a joint industrial complex in the North amid a row over a wage hike.

On Friday, the North accepted the South's tentative offer to pay wages at the current level for the about 53,000 North Korean workers at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the border city of the same name. The move allows the two sides to buy time for talks on the more sensitive issue of Pyongyang's unilateral wage hike.

The Seoul government urged Pyongyang to accept its offer for the joint committee on the industrial park to meet and discuss the wage hike and how to improve the system that governs the complex.

"South Korea is ready to have talks with North Korea if the North comes to the negotiation table," Lim Byeong-cheol, the ministry spokesman, said at a press briefing.

In August 2013, the two Koreas decided to set up a joint committee in charge of running the industrial park following the North's unilateral move in April of that year that shut down the park for about four months.

The committee is an integral part of a deal that called for reopening the complex and adopting safeguards to prevent any work stoppages in the future. The committee has not met since June last year due to the North's refusal.

The two Koreas have been embroiled in the wage dispute as North Korea unilaterally decided in February to hike the wage by 5.18 percent to US$74 per month. Seoul has rejected the North's move.

Friday's deal will allow 124 South Korean firms to pay the wage based on the $70.35 per month that was originally set, according to government officials. The South Korean firms will provide retroactive pay at a future date.

The joint factory park, which opened in 2004, is the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. It has served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped communist North, while South Korea has utilized cheap but skilled North Korean laborers. (Yonhap)