Kumgang resort are the centerpieces of the South's misbegotten 'Sunshine Policy' of engagement with the North.
Rather than blotting out his sunshine policy, the latest incident may have served Mr Kim well at home.
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Indeed, the best argument for the much-criticized Sunshine Policy is that, despite everything, Pyongyang feared it as fundamentally threatening.
But after the Sunshine policy, there's a much better understanding among the people.
Before the Sunshine Policy, the situation was that people in the South panicked when the United States lost the Vietnam War.
Roh has staunchly backed a "sunshine policy" of engagement with the North.
Economic cooperation is also easy, at least initially - and has picked up speed since DJ's Sunshine Policy gave the green light to business.
The South Korean leader also discussed his "sunshine policy" of greater openness with the North when he met U.S. President George W. Bush in February.
And in the process, that's caused complications to the Sunshine policy.
President Kim Dae-Jung is already facing criticism in South Korea for having given too much in pursuing his Sunshine Policy - and having got too little.
Kim is pushing a "sunshine policy" aimed at ending Pyongyang's political and economic isolation, and he does not want talk of retaliation to get in the way.
He pursued the dream of "reconciliation and cooperation" and will be most remembered for the Sunshine Policy, instituted in 1998 after he took office as South Korea's leader.
Shortly after taking office, Kim vigorously met political leaders of Western countries in a bid to gain support for his "Sunshine Policy" to establish relations with the North.
Kim Dae-jung, who died in 2009, and the Hyundai conglomerate were key players in the so-called Sunshine Policy years from 1998 to 2008, during which South Korea attempted to improve relations with Pyongyang through political engagement and financial support.
Or perhaps the incursion represents a desire by some hardline elements in North Korea to sabotage the South's sunshine policy because of their fear that over time the North will be seduced into surrendering its sovereignty or altering its political system.
For example, last week he served notice on South Korean President Kim Dae Jung that the latter's so-called "Sunshine Policy" of detente with North Korea could not be safely pursued with a regime in Pyongyang that was an unreliable partner in disarmament and other agreements.
It has also been alleged that the South Korean government was aware and supportive of the fund transfers as a means of effectively bribing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il to participate and, thereby, to advance the "Sunshine Policy" of his South Korean counterpart, then-President Kim daeJong.
Hong Won Tak, senior secretary for national security affairs, maintained the incident would not change the country's "sunshine" policy of seeking to engage North Korea or to cultivate business relations with it.
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