As North Korea threatens to back out of all its agreements with the South, the BBC's Korea correspondent, John Sudworth, looks at the likely outcome for the divided peninsula.
Little more than a year ago an extraordinary journey was beamed live to television sets around the world.
The then South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, was in a car heading towards one of the most potent symbols of Cold War hostility, his country's land border with North Korea.
On reaching the Military Demarcation Line, Mr Roh stepped out of the motorcade and walked across, a gesture of reconciliation that once would have seemed impossible.
I'm certain that the South Korean government will not let the North Koreans cross the sea-border ever again
Yoon Doo-hoFather of dead South Korean soldier
Back in the car, a couple of hours later, his convoy was sweeping through the streets of the northern capital, Pyongyang, cheered on by thousands of pompom-waving citizens.
Up ahead the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was waiting to greet him.
That summit meeting, only the second time in history that the leaders of North and South have met, now seems a very long time ago.
North Korea's latest assessment of South Korea's current president and his political allies is far from friendly.
"The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the North and the South in the past to dead documents," said a statement carried by the country's official news agency.
Relations have reached "the brink of war" it goes on to say, therefore the North no longer considers itself bound by such agreements.
Little more than a year ago an extraordinary journey was beamed live to television sets around the world.
The then South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, was in a car heading towards one of the most potent symbols of Cold War hostility, his country's land border with North Korea.
On reaching the Military Demarcation Line, Mr Roh stepped out of the motorcade and walked across, a gesture of reconciliation that once would have seemed impossible.
I'm certain that the South Korean government will not let the North Koreans cross the sea-border ever again
Yoon Doo-hoFather of dead South Korean soldier
Back in the car, a couple of hours later, his convoy was sweeping through the streets of the northern capital, Pyongyang, cheered on by thousands of pompom-waving citizens.
Up ahead the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was waiting to greet him.
That summit meeting, only the second time in history that the leaders of North and South have met, now seems a very long time ago.
North Korea's latest assessment of South Korea's current president and his political allies is far from friendly.
"The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the North and the South in the past to dead documents," said a statement carried by the country's official news agency.
Relations have reached "the brink of war" it goes on to say, therefore the North no longer considers itself bound by such agreements.
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