Unparalleled summit
Fifty years ago this month, North Korean troops poured across the 38th parallel in an all-out effort - backed by Mao Zedong and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin - to unite the peninsula under the communist leadership of the late president Kim Il-sung. This morning, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung flies north to meet the son of Kim Il-sung, officially known as Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, to find if the two nations can live in peace, not war.
It is a remarkable mix of change and continuity which may well revise political relations across East Asia. It could bring relatively normal relations between the Koreas, letting them spend more on economics and less on guns. It could halt the North's nuclear weapons and long-range missile programmes, leading to fewer US military forces in the region. And it could remove a potential Korean problem which sometimes adds tension to Chinese and Japanese relations.
Shifting circumstances have forced changes in North Korea. Five decades of totalitarian rule, complete with astonishing cults of personality to deify its leaders, have devastated the society and economy. Failed policies, natural disasters and decreased aid from other Leninist states have brought industrial collapse and starvation; perhaps two million people have died from malnutrition and related causes in recent years.
And South Korea has changed as well. Past decades have seen it emerge from wartime poverty to become a thriving industrial democracy. Seoul also has stopped hoping for a northern collapse - the refugee and reconstruction costs would be unbearable - and instead has opted for a 'sunshine policy' of building cross-border ties.
These remarkable changes make possible the summit scheduled for today and tomorrow. The agenda will begin modestly with a search for better atmospherics by, among other things, permitting family reunions. About 15 per cent of southerners have relatives in the North. If Kim Jong-il does pay a return visit soon, as planned, chances for major political gains seem assured.
For years the Korean peninsula has been the region's most dangerous piece of real estate. Much could yet go wrong. But this summit seems like a promising start for what could bring truly remarkable gains for all Asia.
