As the historic meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea concluded, the two men raised their clasped hands together in triumph before toasting the achievement with champagne. The moment was welcomed with a joy approaching ecstasy in Seoul. While few looking on that day held out the prospect of the militarised border along the 38th parallel suddenly crumbling like the Berlin Wall, it was clear that a new era of trust had begun. “The sun is rising at last for national reunification, reconciliation and peace,” said the South Korean president.

All of the above is taken almost verbatim from An Irish Times report published on June 15th, 2000, the day after the then president of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung, travelled to Pyongyang for a landmark meeting with his northern counterpart, Kim Jong-il. In that same year, Madeleine Albright became the most senior United States official to visit North Korea since the 1950-1953 Korean war, and the US and North Korea began a talks process aimed at preventing the development of nuclear weapons on the peninsula. Before the year was out, Kim Dae-jung won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The parallels with today are striking: in a moment freighted with hope, the world in 2000 was gripped with a sense that the Korean peninsula was edging towards a settlement. The same sense of optimism infused coverage of the meeting in the demilitarised zone last week of Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in and preparations for the upcoming summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.