It's not hard to find North Korea watchers who are critical about the level of effort being made in South Korea to prepare for major change in the DPRK. Although South Korea's Ministry of Unification has in one form or another been tasked with preparing for reunification since 1969, progress towards the once laudable goal has been at best, glacial. And while government initiatives often get tangled in politics, observers say an additional problem now relates to the general public's increasingly apathetic attitudes towards unification.

But although it is understandable that South Korean interest in the DPRK is decreasing with time, the fall of the USSR and Berlin Wall both underscore how seemingly unimaginable changes can quickly change realities on the ground. And if similar changes occur on the Korean peninsula, will South Korea be ready?