HONOLULU -- This week marks the fourth anniversary of the historic June 13-15, 2000, Pyongyang meeting between then-South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korea's current "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il. It was a meeting that forever changed the geopolitics of the Korean Peninsula. It made the impossible -- peaceful reunification -- suddenly seem possible. It did not -- as history has now shown -- guarantee peace on the Peninsula.
This is not to detract from the significance of the summit or from the positive accomplishments that have derived from Kim Dae Jung's bold gesture. Contrary to the euphoria at the time, the summit meeting did not eliminate the prospects for war on the Peninsula. But it made a negotiated settlement plausible, even likely. Both sides acknowledged that their respective proposals for confederation or loose federation provided a "common element" to build toward eventual reunification. While the joint declaration carefully avoided the topic of normalization of relations or a South-North Peace Treaty, it nonetheless ushered in an era of peaceful coexistence that continues, however imperfectly, today. This was the summit's greatest accomplishment.
The summit also opened the door for increased economic contact between the two sides, in keeping with Kim Dae Jung's pledge, as part of his "sunshine policy," to "separate economics from politics." The North's resultant growing economic dependency provides Seoul with increased leverage over Pyongyang . . . if it chooses to use it. It also made possible increased reunions by families separated by the Korean War, even if its promise to "promptly resolve" this issue has not fully been kept, given Pyongyang's refusal to let its citizens see what life is really like in the South.