The chairman of South Korea's Gaeseong Industrial District Foundation said Friday that Pyongyang wants U.S. firms to operate in the inter-Korean Gaesong Industrial Complex.

Speaking at a news conference in Los Angeles after concluding a presentation on Washington's Capital Hill, Kim Jin-hyang said North Korea eventually wants U.S. firms to operate at the Gaesong complex, an inter-Korean venture located just north of the inter-Korean border that has been shuttered since 2016.

Kim said the North believes that the moment American firms enter the complex, war will be a thing of the past.

He said that just as the ultimate goal of the South Korea-U.S. alliance is realizing peace, it is the same with the Gaeseong complex, which "is itself peace."

Kim is part of a South Korean delegation visiting the U.S. this week to call for the reopening of the inter-Korean industrial park.

Jeong Gi-seob, chairman of the Corporate Association of Gaeseong Industrial Complex, also spoke at the news conference, saying they were able to address some concerns regarding complex operations such as the misuse of North Korean employee wages.

But he said he was somewhat disheartened by media reports describing a rather cool U.S. response to the case they made.

Regarding speculations on the misuse of wages, Jeong explained that in 2015 -- when remuneration was at the highest level -- one worker took home a meager 30 dollars a month, which he says indicates the scale of wages is not a cause for concern.