North Korea announced Monday that it will reopen the border for South Koreans to return from a joint industrial complex in the communist state after three days of border closure, Yonhap News Agency reported Monday, quoting a Seoul spokesman.

The notification, however, did not say whether it will also allow South Koreans to cross into the North to visit the Gaeseong complex.

"North Korea sent us a message at 9:20 a.m. that South Koreans who have been waiting to return to the South since Friday will return this afternoon," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun was quoted as saying.

North Korea had banned border crossings since Friday for the second time last week without providing any explanation. The North's first border closure a week ago was done in protest against an ongoing military exercise between South Korea and the United States. Border crossings resumed the next day and continued until last Thursday.

The Gaesong industrial complex, the brainchild of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, is the last remaining reconciliatory project since damaged relations led to the suspension of South Korean tours to North Korea's scenic and historic spots last year.

More than 720 South Koreans currently remain in the complex. Nearly half of about 90 factories there will have to stop production if raw materials are not delivered by Monday, their South Korean offices said.