"The opening of the liaison office is not related to the matter of whether to resume the Kaesong industrial park," a unification ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Kaesong is the western border city in the North where the two Koreas have operated a joint industrial complex since 2004. It was hailed as a successful example of economic cooperation between the two Koreas as it married South Korea's capital with the North's cheap and skillful labor.

South Korea, however, closed operations there in early 2016 and brought its officials and workers back in protest at the North's continued missile and nuclear provocations.

The resumption of the factory operations would only be possible if multilayered sanctions imposed on the North in the wake of its repeated missile and nuclear provocations until late last year are eased. (Yonhap)