North and South Korean officials on Thursday opened rare talks over a protracted wage dispute at the jointly operated Kaesong industrial zone in the North.

The two sides have been mired in a months-long row over wages at the Kaesong estate, just 10 kilometers over the border in North Korea,

with Pyongyang insisting on ­unilaterally imposing a pay rise for its workers.

Seoul had insisted that any wage change must be a joint decision.

North Korea last week agreed to reopen a joint committee in charge of running the industrial park for the first time in more than a year to discuss the wage dispute.