"like cigarette ashes thrown away on the steets"

Events are moving very quickly on the Korean peninsula, with South Korea president Moon Jae-in set to meet with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un tomorrow.  Optimism is free of course, but it's also worth remembering that North Korea has looked ready to "thaw" before.

That said, here's a great piece about North Korea defectors to South Korea who actually want to go back, given the difficulties of missing their families and adjusting to life in a hyper-competitive capitalist society:

"Others have encouraged Kim to smuggle her family out of North Korea to join her in Seoul.

'Living here for seven years taught me what it really is like to live here as a North Korean defector,' she said. 'North Korean defectors are forever strangers in this country, classified as second class citizens. I would never want my daughter to live this life.'

'North Korean defectors are treated like cigarette ashes thrown away on the streets.'”

It's complicated, to say the least.  And while getting to unification is one thing, actual unification might be an even greater struggle for the people of both countries.