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It has been a remarkable turnaround. Just months ago the Korean peninsula was on the brink of nuclear war. Now, on the eve of an historic summit between the Korean leaders, there is talk of peace.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says he will freeze nuclear and missile tests, while South Korean President Moon Jae-in has hinted at economic concessions.
But the greatest resistance to a lasting peace could come from South Korea's young people.
They are all for better security but not for reunification, while the older generation sees the upcoming inter-Korean summit as a last chance to unite the peninsula.
Yong-cheol Jun has made a good life in South Korea but his dying wish is to walk in the land of his birth — North Korea.
In the chaos of the Korean war, he was separated from his mother and two brothers and has not had contact with them since.
He says he needs to return to find out what happened to them.
"I feel deep sorrow. I feel guilty from leaving my family behind. When I sing songs all I can think of is my mother. That is how much my heart aches," he says.
"When I said goodbye to her I thought I would come back to her in a couple of months. If I knew it would have been this long I would have never left."
At least 60,000 South Korean families have been torn apart by the Korean War and most are deeply committed to the reunification of North and South Korea.
"If there can be exchanges and interactions between North and South Korean people then reunification is possible. Then it will be already reunified. I guarantee it," Mr Jun says.
Hyun-sook Kim, 91, is one of the lucky ones. She met her daughter for the first time after 70 years of separation for three days in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
She was in the last family reunion program in 2015. But seeing her daughter has not eased the pain.
"I can't express the feeling. I need to see her again. The only way I can express how I feel is to cry. She grew up without a mother and I can't imagine how hard that would have been," she says.
"It is my dying wish to see my daughter again. I also would like to find out how my parents died and where they are buried."
In South Korea, the younger generations do not have the same desire or sentimentality as the old. They have grown up worlds apart.
After 65 years of separation, the North and South are very different countries. The South is high-tech and hyper-competitive, and the North is stagnant and centrally planned.
The younger generation in South Korea think the divide is far too great for reunification to work.
University student Tae-wan Kim says younger people don't want to pay a reunification bill that could amount to trillions of dollars.
"Our generation thinks why should we pay trillions of dollars, it's not our duty. We struggled to make our economy great, we sacrificed to do it, so why should we give that away?" he asks.
"I think it's impossible to narrow the gap. South Korea is a democracy and North Korea is communist. It's 180 degrees different."
The young believe an influx of North Koreans could threaten South Korea's economic prosperity, and post-graduate student Kyeyu Kwak believes it could lead to greater competition for university places and jobs.
"They (North Koreans) definitely have a hard time assimilating to South Korean culture because our technology has developed so much and our language has in so many different ways," she says.
She says young people are more concerned about getting ahead in South Korean society than the North Korean issue.
"Our younger generation don't really think too much about North Korea as much as the media emphasises.
"We may not want reunification, but many young people are optimistic that out of the summit we can develop good relations in terms of peace."
Topics: government-and-politics, world-politics, foreign-affairs, korea-republic-of, korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of
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