World welcomes Korean sunshine

Across South Korea thousands were glued to their TVs

Expectations were running high in South Korea before President Kim Dae-jung left for his landmark summit in the North.

Summit-fever had developed as the date for the first all-important handshake drew near.

Summit fever quickly turned to astonishment

But in Korea and around the world, those hopes turned to astonishment as the full implications of the summit became clear.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine policy" towards the North appeared finally to be bearing fruit.

Images of the two leaders laughing, toasting each other with champagne and finally embracing each other in a big bear hug on the tarmac of Pyongyang airport - all would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.

Secretive society

Such is the secretive nature of North Korean society that it is hard to gauge what its citizens thought of the meeting.

As in the case of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the agreement constitutes a major change towards peace

Yoshio Mori, Japanese PM

Many of those outside of Pyongyang may not even have known it was taking place.

But in the South, families were glued to their televisions watching a new chapter in the history of the peninsula unfold before them.

Across the world too the images struck a chord.

Images unthinkable just a few months ago

In Japan, which has a long and often turbulent history of relations with the Korean peninsula, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori compared the significance of the meeting to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

He added that he would urge world leaders meeting at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Tokyo next month to support what he called this "historic breakthrough".

In China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said the "government heartily rejoices at the success of the summit and wishes to express its congratulations".

Analysts say such a rare display of exuberance from Beijing, which has long been regarded as North Korea's closest ally, illustrates its relief that the two countries appear to be moving towards reconciliation.

North Korea's missile programme remains a stumbling block

One Western diplomat in the city said "Beijing has got to be happy that North Korea appears to be getting its act together" after years of unremitting bad news coming out of its unpredictable neighbour.

In Washington, President Bill Clinton declared himself "very, very pleased" with the results of the summit.

"It's just a first step, but clearly a move in the right direction," he said. "This is a good thing."

However a note of caution was raised over the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile building programmes.

Missile threat

With little actual progress on that front, the State Department said it saw no reason as yet to downgrade its assessment of a missile threat from North Korea.

For the moment optimism is high about the future

"I don't think we see in this the seeds of anything that would change the possibility of a missile threat to the United States that we would have to deal with," said spokesman Richard Boucher.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said it was "deeply satisfied" with the outcome of the meeting.

"We regard this summit as a manifestation of the good will and sincere desire of both Korean parties to decide the fate of the nation on their own in an atmosphere of stability, peace and calm," it said in a statement.

Doubtless the issues raised at the summit will be high on the agenda of President Vladimir Putin when he makes beats his own path to Pyongyang in July - the first visit by any Russian leader.

Around the world many will be sharing the hopes of those on the Korean peninsula that 50 years of confrontation across the final Cold War frontier could at last be coming to an end.