WILL NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA REUNITE ?

THE sudden death of Kim Jong-il is forcing North Korea's prosperous southern neighbour to confront a class divide deep in its midst.

People like Son Jeong-hun, a defector from the north struggling to fit in modern, bustling Seoul, hope the dictator's demise signals a light at the end of the tunnel for their backward homeland. Others like South Korean-born Kim Chi-guk, who sells imported chocolate at an exclusive department store, are afraid a train is barrelling straight for them - maybe bristling with weapons, maybe jammed with millions of unwashed cousins who will cost them a lot of money.

In Seoul, just an hour's drive from the demilitarised zone, no one wants a war with North Korea, or to see its people continue to die of hunger. Still, well-established and prosperous South Koreans are unlikely to wish for dramatic change.



But the 20,000 northern defectors in South Korea and those who share their concerns - particularly Christians eager to convert the North Koreans - are a distinct minority.

Many others instead fret over their personal security and wallets. For years, North Korea has kept an arsenal of weapons aimed at their homes, schools and businesses. And what ruin will befall South Korea's bustling economy, they ask, if the Korean peninsula is reunited and millions of impoverished North Koreans come streaming across the demilitarised zone?

According to an estimate made earlier this year by South Korea's Unification Ministry, stitching the two countries together would cost between $US1 trillion and $2.5 trillion.