In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: SEOUL North and South Korea announced on Thursday they were planning to hold talks for the first time since February 2011, signaling attempts to repair ties that have been ruptured for months. 
  
 For months earlier this year, North Korea unleashed an almost daily stream of threats against the South and its ally, the United States, vowing to attack them with nuclear weapons. Tension on the Korean peninsula was at the highest in decades, but has waned since joint U.S.-South Korean military drills ended in late April. 
  
 North Korea's state-owned KCNA news agency issued a statement on Thursday proposing talks with the South on normalizing commercial projects, including the joint industrial zone that was closed at the height of tensions in early April. 
  
 It also said Pyongyang would restore severed communications channels if the South accepted the offer of talks, indicating it was prepared to roll back a series of hostile steps it took as relations deteriorated. 
  
 South Korea welcomed the offer, proposing the talks be held on June 12 between ministers to discuss a range of issues including the commercial projects and families split during the 1950-53 Korean War. 
  
 "We hope that the talks take place between the authorities of the South and the North as we proposed and are accepted by the North and become an occasion for relations to develop based on mutual trust," Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said. 
  
 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, was "hopeful it is the beginning of a process of trust-building between the parties." 
  
 "This is an encouraging development towards reducing tensions and promoting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement. 
  
 The North, in the statement by its Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea which handles ties with the South, also proposed discussing the reopening of tours to a mountain resort and family reunions as well as to hold events to mark the 2000 summit of their leaders that opened a decade of warmer ties. 
  
 "We propose holding talks between authorities of the North and the South for the normalization of the operation in the KIZ (Kaesong industrial zone) and the resumption of tours of Mt. Kumgang on the occasion of the anniversary of the June 15 joint declaration," the committee said. 
  
 The June 15 declaration refers to the outcome of the 2000 summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the North's Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011. 
  
 South Korea has previously proposed to hold talks with the North on reopening the Kaesong zone, but Seoul has been reluctant to link those talks with the summit commemoration, saying Pyongyang would try to use them for propaganda. 
  
 North Korea stepped up defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions in December when it launched a rocket that it said had put a scientific satellite into orbit. Critics said the launch was aimed at developing technology to deliver a nuclear warhead mounted on a long-range missile. 
  
 The North followed that in February with its third test of a nuclear weapon. That brought new U.N. sanctions which in turn led to a dramatic intensification of North Korea's threats of nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States. 
  
 The threats have now waned. The North sent one of its top military officials to China in late May and Choe Ryong-hae, a special envoy of leader Kim Jong-un, said the secluded country was willing to take "positive steps" for peace and stability. 
  
 Moon Hong-sik, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy, said North Korea's gesture may be in response to China's pressure and also the effect of toughened U.N. sanctions following the nuclear test in February. 
  
 "North Korea is following an old pattern of threats, provocations and talks as it is currently pressured by the economic squeeze and its major sponsor China is not same as before," said Moon. 
  
 China welcomed the improvement in ties between the two Koreas. "We hope that both sides cherish this momentum for talks which has not come about easily," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing. 
  
 The gesture comes just ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's first summit meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday. North Korea is expected to be the top agenda item. 
  
 (Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Cynthia Osterman) ||||| Image caption Kaesong, which opened a decade ago, is seen as a symbol of inter-Korean co-operation 
  
 The two Koreas appear set to hold talks on a jointly-run industrial zone, weeks after operations were suspended there. 
  
 North Korea proposed talks with Seoul in a statement early on Thursday carried by state news agency KCNA. 
  
 South Korea's Unification Ministry said it "positively views" the proposal, which follows months of high tension on the peninsula. 
  
 The Kaesong industrial zone, just inside North Korea, is a key source of revenue for Pyongyang. 
  
 But North Korea pulled out its workers in early April as its relations with the South - and regional neighbours - deteriorated in the wake of its 12 February nuclear test. 
  
 Since then operations at the zone, where more than 120 South Korean manufacturers employ some 53,000 North Korea workers, have been fully halted for the first time since the project began a decade ago. 
  
 North Korea said late last month it would invite South Korean businessmen back to discuss the resumption of operations but Seoul ruled that out, saying working-level government talks should be held. 
  
 'Normalisation' 
  
 The KCNA statement, attributed to the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, said that hotlines cut during the period of high tension would be reconnected if South Korea agreed to the talks. 
  
 Kaesong Industrial Zone Launched in 2003, largely financed by the South to increase co-operation 
  
 More than 120 factories employ North Koreans in manufacturing industries, with goods exported to the South 
  
 Complex as a whole produced $470m worth of goods in 2012 - the biggest contributor to inter-Korean trade 
  
 South Korean companies pay more than $80m a year in wages to North Korean workers Q&A: Kaesong Industrial Complex 
  
 "We propose holding talks between authorities of the North and the South for the normalisation of the operation in the KIZ [Kaesong Industrial Zone] and the resumption of tour of Mt Kumgang," it said. 
  
 The Mount Kumgang resort is a joint tourism project that has been suspended since a South Korean tourist was shot dead there by a North Korean guard in 2008. North Korea has since seized assets of the resort's South Korean operator. 
  
 Restarting reunions of separated families could also be discussed, the North Korea statement said, adding: "The venue of the talks and the date for their opening can be set to the convenience of the South side." 
  
 South Korea appeared to welcome the move, saying it "positively views North Korea's proposal". 
  
 "We hope that South and North Korea can build trust through this opportunity," the Unification Ministry said, adding that the agenda and schedule would be announced after discussions. 
  
 Deciding on the agenda could present hurdles, observers cautioned. 
  
 It follows several months of threats and rhetoric from the communist North. 
  
 Apparently angered by the US sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test and annual South Korea-US military drills, it warned of attacks on regional targets and cut key economic and communications links with Seoul. 
  
 In recent weeks, however, tensions appear to have lessened somewhat. Late last month, North Korea sent an envoy to Beijing - seen as having the greatest degree of influence on Pyongyang - for talks, for the first time since its nuclear test. |||||
A: 
Some two months after it announced the removal of its workers from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, North Korea is ready to talk things over with the South. Pyongyang suggested new talks this morning, and South Korea says it "positively views" the idea, the BBC reports. Via its official news agency, Pyongyang also proposed discussing "the resumption of the tour of Mt. Kumgang," a joint resort whose operation was halted when a North Korean guard shot a South Korean tourist. The North also mentioned the possibility of new family reunions between North and South. The North referred in today's proposal to "the June 15 joint declaration," a 2000 summit between the countries' leaders that helped improve relations, Reuters notes; the South has feared Pyongyang might use the occasion for propaganda purposes.