North Korea is “ready to welcome” almost 200 South Korean businesspersons to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), a spokesperson with the country’s Ministry of External Economic Relations told Cuban state outlet Prensa Latina Tuesday.

The welcome message for the group of businesspersons – shut out of the KIC upon its sudden closure in early 2016 – appears to signal North Korea’s eagerness to jumpstart the process towards the park’s eventual reopening.

It follows comments last week from a representative for the trip’s organizing group, the KIC Emergency Response Committee, that they believed North Korea was “fundamentally in agreement” over