The unthinkable has happened: the United States of America has finally embarked on a process to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba. After half a century of rather unsuccessful, if determined efforts to get rid of the Castro brothers’ regime, Washington has changed policy.

The South Korean media treated this as front page news, and nearly all leads were the same: now North Korea has become the only remaining legacy of the Cold War, i.e. the only communist country not formally recognized by the United States. Newspaper reports seemingly indicate that many South Korean opinion leaders, including those on the political right, are not necessarily opposed to the United States normalizing relations with Pyongyang.