For the latest inter-Korean agreement to reopen a joint factory park “when ready” to be put in practice, the South and the North must clear up matters left ambiguous during their marathon talks at the truce village of Panmunjeom on the weekend.

The two sides will meet again Wednesday at the Gaeseong industrial complex in North Korea to discuss detailed conditions for reviving the last remaining symbol of cross-border cooperation, which has been closed for the past three months. Under the initial agreement, South Korean businessmen will be allowed to visit their factories at the complex to check on production facilities beginning on the same day and to retrieve finished goods and raw materials as requested by them.

There has been a guarded optimism that the positive momentum brewing between the two Koreas after months of confrontation may lead to the reopening of the industrial park, which was built in 2004. The North appears to be pushing to revive operations at the complex, a valuable source of hard currency for the impoverished regime. It took a surprise step last Wednesday by restoring a cross-border hotline and inviting South Korean businessmen to visit the factory zone. In an indication of its wish to reopen the complex, Pyongyang accepted Seoul’s subsequent proposal to hold working-level official talks on the matter at Panmunjeom.

It is yet to be seen, however, how much closer the North would come to the South’s demands that it acknowledge responsibility for suspending the operation of the industrial park and guarantee the prevention of another shutdown in the future. The North has blamed the South’s provocative acts for the move in April to pull out all its 53,000 workers from the 123 factories run by South Korean companies at the complex.

Hopefully, Pyongyang may be pushed into accepting ― though not fully ― conditions set by Seoul. As noted by some observers here, it may be unaffordable to abort the deal both to keep the lucrative project alive and ease international pressure on it, which has been toughened since its third nuclear test in February.

Seoul officials are right to be cautious against jumping into an agreement to reopen the industrial park without any substantial measures to protect South Korea’s investment and personnel and restrict North Korea’s arbitrary behavior disregarding international standards. But they would still do well to exercise more flexibility and strategic wisdom to reach a final accord acceptable to the two sides in a broader framework for pushing forward inter-Korean relations.