North and South Korea have agreed to resume operations at their troubled joint industrial park after a series of talks on the fate of the rivals' last symbol of economic cooperation.

A joint statement said on Wednesday that the two countries had agreed to cooperate to restart Kaesong industrial zone and prevent another shutdown. It did not give a date.

The five-point agreement that came out of a seventh round of talks committed both sides to making "active efforts" to resuming normal operations as soon as possible after inspecting the shuttered plants.

A joint committee will be set up to discuss compensation for economic losses suffered as a result of the complex's closure, according to a copy of the accord released to reporters.

The agreement will help lower tensions ahead of the launch of joint South Korea-US military exercises on Monday which the North had warned could bring the divided peninsula "to the brink of war".

In April, the North pulled its 53,000 workers out of the park at the height of nuclear tensions between the two sides, with the North threatening the United States and the South with attack.

Established in 2004 as a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, Kaesong was a key hard-currency earner for the North and the decision to shut it down took many observers by surprise.

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Reclusive North Korea and the South, one of the richest countries in the world, are technically still at war as their 1950-53 civil conflict ended not in a treaty but a mere truce