On Dec. 11, 2007, South and North Korea launch a regular cargo train service through their heavily fortified border for the first time since the end of the Korean War. (Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press)

In 2002, North Korea, one of the most controlling and isolated nations in the world, became a charter member of George W. Bush's "axis of evil" (along with Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Libya and Syria).

But over the last year — over the last few months in fact — the so-called hermit nation has started to ease out of its shell through joint projects with South Korea, with which it is still formally at war, and disarmament talks with the U.S.

North Korea even invited the prestigious New York Philharmonic to play in the capital next year and the orchestra accepted, leading to the prospect of the Star-Spangled Banner — along with Gershwin's An American in Paris — being played in all their glory in the austere Soviet-style confines of Pyongyang in February.

The country has been heavily guarded since its creation after the Second World War when the Korean peninsula was split in two. The North was pro-Soviet and Communist, while the South received U.S. support and tens of thousands of American troops, allowing it to govern and develop in a western style.

In the summer of 1950, within months of Communist China being formed, North Korea invaded the South, sparking the three-year Korean War. A 1953 ceasefire established a demilitarized zone between the Koreas, but the two countries never officially signed a peace agreement and their relationship remained tense, evidenced by gun battles, bombings, espionage and strict restrictions until just recently.

North Korea is also at odds with the U.S. over Pyongyang's much-publicized attempts over the years to develop a nuclear weapons program.

Suddenly, though, it seems both relationships may be on the mend. A cross-border cargo train service between the two Koreas started this week. Pyongyang also announced it would open a historic city just north of the border to South Korean tourists. Then came the surprising news about the New York Philharmonic.

Friendship politics

These latest developments, however, should probably be seen in context.

By the late 1990s, liberal politicians in South Korea were trying to mend fences, and also open the rail routes through North Korea to the lucrative Trans-Siberian transport system. In 1998, the South introduced its so-called "Sunshine Policy" with the aim of reconciling with the North, a precursor to eventual reunification.

As part of this policy, South Korea offered to fund factories and provide jobs to residents of North Korea, where labour is cheaper and life is harsh, often requiring large injections of foreign food and fuel aid.

These moves led to the first leaders' summit between the two Koreas in 2000, which in turn allowed South Korean factories to ship products to North Korea for processing along certain specified roads.

For its part, Pyongyang started to foster tourism from the south, which critics saw as a move to maintain control over its impoverished population. Southerners are still legally banned from taking unauthorized tours of the North and are unable to visit family in the country without special permission.

The first North Korean tourism hot spot — the Mount Kumgang resort near the east coast, a haven of ancient Buddhist temples — opened to South Koreans in 1998 and has reportedly hosted more than nine million, mostly South Korean, tourists since.

Earlier this month, on Dec. 5, 2007, North Korea added a second tourism site, allowing South Korean tourists to visit the southern city of Kaesong, the historic former capital of Korea's Koryo Dynasty. Tour operator Hyundai Asan said it would be making regular cross-border tours and reportedly plans to launch a third tour, to Mount Paekdu on the North Korean-Chinese border, in May.

A second leaders' summit, in October, marked a speeding-up of the reconciliation efforts. The two leaders agreed to begin negotiations for a formal peace treaty, as well as to several joint projects including cross-border train services and a joint fishing venture in 2008.

The cross-border cargo train, decorated with flowers for the event, made its first trip on Dec. 11 to a North Korean railway station just across the border. The Unification Ministry said the train would make a round trip on the 25-kilometre track every weekday to deliver cargo to a joint industrial complex in Kaesong.

The two countries have also conducted a one-time test run for passenger trains on two reconnected tracks, but there has been no agreement yet for regular passenger train service to resume anytime soon.

Washington's take

Because of the Korean War, in which over 54,000 Americans and over 500 Canadians lost their lives, the relationship with the Communist North has generally been strained.

But in 1994, during the Bill Clinton presidency, this relationship began to look up after Washington and Pyongyang signing a deal in which the U.S. helped construct two nuclear power plants if North Korea would end its nuclear weapons program. At the time, many commentators saw North Korea's weapons plan as blackmail by the late Great Leader Kim Sung-il to wring more foreign aid from the West.

In 2002, however, things started to disintegrate again. U.S. President Bush categorized North Korea as a rogue nation and a part of the axis of evil. Under new leader Kim Jong-il, a reclusive strongman with a playboy image, the country had once again revealed it had an active program to develop nuclear weapons and the Bush administration said it believed North Korea had secret chemical and biological weapons programs as well.

Missile tests in the summer of 2006, which included a long-range missile that failed shortly after launch, further created tension between the countries, South Korea as well. That fall, Pyongyang's military leaders announced that they had tested a nuclear weapon in an underground site.

Since, however, an olive branch has been extended. Partly this has developed because the U.S. has been exerting pressure on 2008 Olympic host China, a key supplier to North Korea for essentials such as fuel, and Beijing in turn appears to have played an important role in getting Kim to shut his weapons program, which he agreed to in February 2007.

Clinching the deal

Helping secure the deal, the U.S. Navy came to the aid of a North Korean vessel in a high-seas standoff with Somali pirates in October 2007. President Kim sent Bush a note of appreciation for the help and the U.S. president reciprocated with a personal letter encouraging Kim to fulfill his promise for nuclear disarmament.

The deal between the U.S., China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the North, is to have Pyongyang disable its plutonium production facility and account for its atomic arms activity by the end 2007, in exchange for food and fuel aid and the lifting of international sanctions. The disabling has begun.

As an additional sign that relationships are getting cozier, North Korea invited New York's philharmonic orchestra to perform at the end of a previously planned tour in China.

The orchestra announced it would visit for 48 hours. During that time it will conduct classes with North Korean musicians and perform an open rehearsal in addition to the Feb. 26 American-inspired concert. The orchestra will also perform in Seoul, the South Korean capital.

Orchestra officials told the New York Times that Pyongyang agreed with all of their conditions, including allowing the presence of foreign journalists, a nationwide broadcast of the program, acoustical adjustments to the theatre, permission to play both countries' national anthems and an assurance that the eight philharmonic members of Korean origin would not encounter difficulties.

"This visit will surely deepen the understanding and cultural relations of the two countries," said North Korea's UN Ambassador Pak Gil Yon at the announcement.

There have been no reports as to whether leader Kim Jong-il will attend the concert.