Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry visited the inter-Korean industrial complex in North Korea’s border city of Gaesong Thursday.

During his visit, he was briefed by the complex management committee, toured the three-point-three square kilometer first phase development site and two companies at the site.

A Unification Ministry official in Seoul quoted Perry as saying that he was impressed by the project which he called the future of the Korean Peninsula.

The former Clinton administration defense chief also told Pyongyang officials in charge of development that they were pioneers, to which they responded favorably.

Perry was accompanied by former U.S. Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, former Assistant Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Bell Labs President Jeong Kim on the Gaesong visit.

Perry was Clinton's North Korea policy coordinator following the North's test-firing of a long-range Daepodong-One missile in 1998. His extensive review of U.S. policy toward Pyongyang was dubbed the "Perry process" and led to broadened engagement with the reclusive communist state.