A joint-Korean fact-finding team will visit industrial parks in China and Vietnam to look for inspiration for the floundering Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North.

In a press briefing on Thursday, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said, "The government has recently agreed with North Korea to conduct a 10-day joint-Korean survey of industrial complexes in China and Vietnam in mid-December. The team will consist of 10 members from each side."

Additional consultations will be needed to discuss the schedule and a list of team members. The agreement was reached this week, when the North accepted a proposal from South Korea made in working-level inter-Korean talks at the Kaesong industrial park in June.

This will be the third trip of its kind after 2005 and 2007. The news has been greeted with approval, coming as it does at a time when inter-Korean relations are cooling again. Prof. Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University said the mission “will help improve inter-Korean relations."

The government's rationale for yet another fact-finding mission is that officials from the two Koreas "need to take a first-hand look together at procedures accepted in the international market to make the Kaesong Industrial Complex internationally competitive," according to a senior government official. If the tour is a success, he claimed there would be "further progress in matters like achieving easier travel, customs clearance and communication between the two sides, building a dormitory for North Korean workers at Kaesong, and constructing a road for commuters there."