"In mid-June, I traveled to Pyongyang for the historic meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-il of the North Korean National Defense Commission. I went with a heavy heart not knowing what to expect, but convinced that I must go for the reconciliation of my people and peace on the Korean peninsula. There was no guarantee that the summit meeting would go well. Divided for half-a-century after a three-year war, South and North Korea have lived in mutual distrust and enmity across the barbed-wire fence of the demilitarized zone."

"To replace the dangerous stand-off with peace and cooperation, I proclaimed my sunshine policy upon becoming President in February 1998, and have consistently promoted its message of reconciliation with the North: first, we will never accept unification through communization; second, nor would we attempt to achieve unification by absorbing the North; and third, South and North Korea should seek peaceful coexistence and cooperation. Unification, I believe, can wait until such a time when both sides feel comfortable enough in becoming one again, no matter how long it takes. At first, North Korea resisted, suspecting that the sunshine policy was a deceitful plot to bring it down. But our genuine intent and consistency, together with the broad support for the sunshine policy from around the world, including its moral leaders such as Norway, convinced North Korea that it should respond in kind. Thus, the South-North summit could be held."

Kim Dae-Jung - Nobel peace Prize Acceptance Speech, 2000

"A secret payment made to North Korea by the Hyundai Business Group shortly before the historic June 2000 inter-Korean summit was 'related' to an effort to persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to participate in the summit, a South Korean special prosecutor said Wednesday."

"Song said his investigation showed Hyundai agreed to provide $400 million to North Korea, while the South Korean government initially agreed to shell out $100 million to arrange the Korean summit held in Pyongyang on June 13-15, 2000, between Kim Jong Il and then South Korean President Kim Dae Jung.'

Secret payment to N. Korea 'related' to 2000 Korean summit

More than that there are so many open questions – would the capital be shifted again to Pyongyang? How to begin to integrate and share power, political and military, with the North? And what about the “Cult of Kim Il-Sung?” The will to survive, politically, in the North is undeniably strong. It is perhaps the most devout of all of the Communist countries to have been born in the 20th century, and the isolation enforced by the government has produced generations of what many would simply call “brainwashed fanatics” virulently opposed to the capitalist imperialism of the West. Which brings up the most intractable issue in the equation – how to end the American military presence in the South? Ever since the end of the Korean War the American soldiers have been stationed in the country, still maintaining around 30,000 troops and nearly 40 main bases in the country currently. Most South Koreans feel a great debt of gratitude towards the soldiers in defending their country, and the bases have become an entrenched part of the nation’s infrastructure and development. But one wonders, are they to stay forever? Is there not some advantage to promoting a peaceful resolution of the conflict after so many years that allows the bases to close and the troops to go home? The fact is that the US government has been happy to maintain a large military presence in the region as part of its global foreign policy goals and Cold War mentality, and has done little traditionally to facilitate a withdrawal.

The North Korean nuclear test may have been a huge shift in the balance of power in the region, but it remains to be seen if it can stave off the deterioration of the country economically. North Koreans are starving, and have had major difficulties with food production for years, made all the more difficult by the collapse of the Eastern trading block of Communist nations at the end of the Cold War. Old allies and trading partners disappeared overnight, while North Korea did not change. This resolve to preserve the Socialist experiment of Kim Il-Sung is not to be underestimated, it is clear that most North Koreans fervently believe in their dogma, economic hardships notwithstanding. Such ideology has few sympathizers in the South, one of the most virulent and unrepentant capitalist countries in the world, and one of the most successful. The two countries have enjoyed merely a few recent family reunions and top level exchanges in the last decade, otherwise they have been in a state of near total war for 50 years. There seems little likelihood that the population of the North is willing to spontaneously abandon their ideology and revolt popularly against the system, tearing down the walls of the DMZ as the Germans did in Berlin. So what, if anything can be done to facilitate reunification, and is it even possible in the current climate?

North Korea has sought a non-aggression pact from the United States, and removing the threat of military force would undoubtedly open up the possibility for a more free exchange between the North and South. Economic exchanges and partnerships have been popular on both sides, though many suggest South Koreans felt disdain and anger when discovering that Kim Dae-Jung directed nearly half a billion US dollars worth of aid, “bribes,” to the North to secure the first Summit and his Nobel Prize. Nevertheless, the day will have to come when the US plays the withdrawal card in exchange for reunification and allowing the Korean’s to work out the cultural and political problems among themselves. The two go hand in hand and until US forces agree to exit it is unlikely that any progress will be made.