South Korean food maker Maniker said Friday that company executives will visit North Korea next month to finalize a deal to set up chicken farms there.

The firm, one of the nation's leading poultry processors, has sought to build chicken farms in the North since 2002 with a view to taking advantage of the country's cheap labor.

During their visit in mid-September, Maniker executives will work with North Korean officials to choose sites for the chicken farms between Sariwon, south of Pyongyang, and Samilpo near Mount Geumgang on the east coast.

Maniker said that North Korea has shown a "positive" response to the project.

If the project is successful, it will be the first time for a South Korean firm to make a direct investment in North Korea outside of the inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaesong.

At the Gaesong Industrial Park, located just 70 kilometers north of Seoul, 26 South Korean companies employ about 16-thousand North Korean workers who produce garments, kitchenware and other goods.

Though the two Koreas remain technically at war, the two sides have had significant economic cooperation since 2000, when then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il held a historic summit.

The Gaesong complex is one of the prominent symbols of inter-Korean rapprochement.