F

amilies on both sides of the Korean border may not be raising their hopes for reunions, despite the weekend meeting of respective authorities from the North and South. They have seen it all before ' loud rhetoric ending small opportunities of cooperation, followed by a few nice gestures, then the repeated 'viscious cycle' of South Korea having to appease its neighbor, in the words of South Korea's President Park Geun-hye. It was just in April that more than 50,000 North Korean workers pulled out of the Kaesong industrial zone, a joint project between the two Koreas, followed by their counterparts a few weeks ago.

But, since the border village of Panmunjom last saw an official meeting between the two nations a decade ago, the talks between their respective unification committees on Sunday had heads turning nonetheless. The function occurred just hours after US President Barack Obama met Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping in California.

Each side said they shared similar interests on how to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions, which have looked even more threatening under young leader Kim Jong-un. The ministerial-level talks are expected to be held next week in Seoul, the first after six years, and a reunion of families, separated after 60 years following the Korean War, will be among the agenda points. This rapid development came about following a proposal from North Korea, which suddenly suggested bilateral talks.

Apart from disputes surrounding the South China Sea, regional peace depends on at least cordial ties between the Koreas, where North Korea's leaders in particular are an unpredictable factor.

However, the latter still points to the military exercises between the United States and South Korea as being the main reason for its latest nuclear threats. Avoiding another nuclear test would be an achievement, although hopes that Kim Jong-un will lead his nation back to the Six-Party Talks on the nation's nuclear ambitions are slim.

Asian neighbors no longer pin their hopes on regional security talks and the roundtable among the Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan, from which North Korea walked out in 2009.

The hope today lies with North Korea's largest neighbor and sole ally, China, to put pressure on the North to comply with the results of such dialogues. If some meaningful progress can be made with the successive reciprocal visits of the American and Chinese leaders, the Asian neighborhood can stop constantly looking over its shoulder ' at least for the near future.