North Korea dismissed on Sunday South Korea's offer for dialogue on the future of the Kaesong joint industrial zone, calling the offer a "cunning ploy," South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

The dialogue offer is "to conceal their criminal wrongdoings that drove the Kaesong Industrial Complex into crisis," a spokesman at North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said.

The North announced the withdrawal of its 53,000 workers from the joint industrial park at its western border town of Kaesong, after operations there were suspended at the beginning of last week.

Seoul on Thursday called for Pyongyang to "come to the dialogue table" to revive the complex, a rare symbol of cross-border economic cooperation and crucial hard currency source for the North.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that "until when should we repeat this endless vicious circle of (North Korea) creating crisis before compromising and aid, and creating crisis again before compromising and aid."

Park said Seoul will push for dialogue. Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said the normalization of the complex should be made through dialogue.

But the spokesman from the North pointed out the words such as "provocation" and "repeated vicious circle" commented by President Park and Minister Ryoo as insincere, describing the dialogue offer as "blushless acts" and "empty shell," and denouncing that South Korea has never apologized for the military drills between Seoul and Washington.

The spokesperson told state media KCNA that if the South is genuine about having talks, it should first abandon the confrontational posture.

Neither side has allowed previous crises to significantly affect the complex, which was built in 2004 and produces good ranging from shoes to watches and is seen as a bellwether for stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Tensions have been running high after the fresh UN sanctions, which were imposed after North Korea staged a long-range rocket launch and a third nuclear test.

Agencies