South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun and the North’s leader Kim Jong-il met in Pyongyang this week for only the second inter-Korean summit since the peninsula was divided in 1948. The three-day event concluded with the two leaders signing a broad agreement to boost economic co-operation and possibly pave the way for a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Arriving in the North, in a symbolic move, Mr Roh and his wife Kwon Yang-sook walked across the military demarcation line - specially painted bright yellow for the occasion. While thousands of North Koreans greeted them waving plastic flowers and soldiers marched in goose-step in Pyongyang’s central square, protesters gathered in South Korea to demonstrate against Mr Kim’s rule.