To many around the world, the ROK unification minister’s statement that North and South Korea are separate states will have hardly registered as a controversial claim. After all, rival governments have ruled on the two halves of the peninsula for 80 years.

But Chung Dong-young’s remarks to journalists in Seoul last week actually marked a significant departure from decades of ROK policy, and they send a clear signal about how the current administration — or at least a key faction within it — intends to approach Pyongyang in the long term.