Over the years, periods of high tension and confrontation have alternated with spells of d tente. But the closest the leaders of the two sides have come to meeting was in 1994, shortly after the discovery of North Korea's nuclear weapons program provoked an international crisis that brought the peninsula to the brink of war. Preparations for the meeting were well advanced when Kim Il Sung suddenly died. Relations turned frosty again after the South declined to offer condolences to his son, Kim Jong Il. The ball started to roll again after Kim Dae Jung took office in Seoul in February 1998.
Critics say the policy amounts to giving away the farm, with little to show in return.
But it seems to have convinced the North that Kim is a man they can deal with. The North Koreans have shown they mean business in the preparations leading up to the summit. I don't think anyone doubts this meeting will happen. More confirmation came last week when Kim Jong Il made a hush-hush and highly unusual trip to Beijing to confer with Chinese leaders. Kim may have been hoping to bolster pre-summit support from China, North Korea's closest ally since the Korean War.