After the North-South summit last June, South Korea became too euphoric. The South Korean media and public gave blind support to the dictator in the North, as if overnight they had forgotten the acrimony and hatred that had lasted for 50 years between the two countries. In Seoul, goods bearing the likeness of Kim Jong Il reportedly sold like hotcakes, and the North Korean leader became even more popular than his South Korean counterpart, President Kim Dae Jung.
North Korea was even more euphoric. Kim Jong Il succeeded in getting the South Korean president, who is much older than he is, to visit Pyongyang for the summit. This is unusual in light of the South's much higher international standing and Korea's Confucian culture of paying respects to one's elders.
Kim Jong Il apparently believed that his ruling ideology of "juche" (self-reliance) got the better of Kim Dae Jung's Sunshine Policy. Furthermore, a subsequent visit to Pyongyang by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appeared to pave the way for the first-ever visit by a U.S. president. The North Korean leader must have been pleased with his diplomatic feat.