For the first time in 50 years, a pair of passenger trains adorned with flowers and flanked by cheering crowds crossed the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea. The two countries are still technically at war, but in recent years many efforts have been made to reunify the peninsula.
South Korea has initiated many of these peace processes, and indeed the south has as much to gain as the north in the end of the detente. South Korea is ranked the second most digitalized country (after Taiwan) and has a thriving high-tech and industrialized economy. North Korea represents a large potential workforce for these firms, and eventually a market for those same goods right next to home. However, it's still doubtful whether North Korea will pursue anything other than symbolic reunification; they have refused to let the cross-border train run regularly, and demanded nearly $80 million dollars in aid from South Korea to allow the event to go through at all.
Many experts speculate that the totalitarian government in power in North Korea recognizes that any contact with the outside world, and particularly prosperous South Korea, could well lead to political challenge of their legitimacy.
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