Help students identify Japan and South Korea on a map or globe. Commercial contact with Japan in the 1800s foreshadowed Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910. That 35-year colonization ended in 1945. According to the related New York Times article, the softer tone of the relations may reflect a recognition that money from Japan, which has the world's second largest economy, will be necessary for the reconstruction of a North Korea on the verge of collapse. Answers will vary.
Leaders can show by example that they have no hard feelings against the other country.
They can also help people to appreciate how the cultures of both nations have influenced one another over the years, and that they have more in common than the people in each country might think.