And speaking of North-South summits...

Ha Byeong-ok [left] and So Man-sul [right], the respective leaders of the pro-Seoul and pro-Pyongyang Korean associations in Japan are meeting to patch up their decades-old feud.

In all fairness, we should say that most members of the "pro-Pyongyang" group are more accurately described as North-oriented, and it is so primarily because of the geographic location of these Japan-based members' families. Were they to not maintain such ties, they would have no conduit of support to relatives who may desperately need their financial help.

The two groups represent Koreans living in Japan, most of whom are descendants of those who came voluntarily or were forcibly brought to Japan during Tokyo's 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea. The pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan, known as Mindan, was founded in 1946. The pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, known as Chongryon in Korean or Chōsen Sōren in Japanese, was established in 1955.

According to a joint statement:

Mindan and (Chongryon) ... agreed to switch their relationship, which for a long time had been based on animosity and conflict, to one of mutual understanding and harmony.

The two groups have a long history of deep ideological antagonism that reflects that of their respective orientations, but they have now agreed to cooperate to better the lives of Koreans in Japan and maintain their ethnic identity. This was made possible, in part, by greater cooperation between the two Korean governments, a reflection of former ROK President Kim Daejung's so-called "Sunshine Policy."

During the Cold War, Chongryon campaigned to portray the communist North as a "paradise on earth" and repatriate ethnic Koreans from Japan, a stance Mindan fiercely criticized. Today, some in Japan accuse the leadership of the pro-Pyongyang group of aiding in spying and perhaps even abducting Japanese citizens.

North Korea's Kim Jong-il admitted in 2004 to earlier abductions of Japanese nationals, which has contributed to Chongryon's has also had declining membership, but both groups are affected by a smaller and smaller membership base as tens of thousands of ethnic Koreans in Japan—a majority now third generation or even later—opt for Japanese citizenship and are now able to enjoy fuller assimilation as members of Japanese society.