Nostalgia: Old Men, Old War

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Occasionally the North Koreans have tried tunneling under the DMZ. In light of the historic summit meeting of the leaders of the two Koreas at Pyongyang last month, an easier transit may in the distant offing become reality. Addressing a gigantic rally in Seoul that climaxed the anniversary celebration, South Korea's President, Kim Dae Jung, suggested just that. If a mere 20 or 30 kilometers of missing railway track between South and North were restored, Kim observed, "you could board the train in Pusan or Mokpo, travel through China and the Maritime Province of Siberia and reach all the way to central Asia and on to Paris." That would be a train ride I'd love to come back to Korea to take. But Korean unification--tongil, the word that was on every South Korean's lips during our visit--won't happen in the few years any of us there might have left.

A former TIME correspondent in Asia, Africa and Europe, Curtis Prendergast lives in and writes from rural Maryland