North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s sudden death has further increased the uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula. Yet it has also provided an important opening for the two Koreas to end the hostility and pursue peace and mutual prosperity. To grab this rare opportunity, the Seoul government needs to recalibrate its North Korea strategy.

Inter-Korean relations have remained deadlocked for years, especially following the North’s provocations against the South last year ― the destruction of the Navy’s Cheonan corvette in March and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November.

More recently, the Seoul government sought to thaw the frozen ties by appointing a new unification minister, who emphasized flexibility toward the North. But relations between the two sides remain as chilly as ever.

Kim Jong-il’s death could provide a breakthrough to this impasse. Uncertainty currently surrounds the reclusive country and its new leadership. It is difficult to predict which way the veiled country would go in the post-Kim era. And it is anybody’s guess whether Kim Jong-un, the deceased leader’s 28-year-old son and heir, would be able to maintain power.

Yet if history is any guide, the North’s new leadership is expected to honor the deceased leader and follow the path charted by him. Before his death, the iron-fisted leader decided to resume the six-party talks on dismantling the North’s nuclear programs. It was an inevitable choice, given the North’s desperate need for foreign aid to ease its chronic food and energy shortages.

Thus, just a few days before Kim’s demise, Pyongyang agreed to receive 240,000 tons of food aid from Washington in return for implementing the “pre-steps” for the resumption of the denuclearization talks.

The pre-steps demanded by Seoul and Washington include a suspension of the North’s uranium enrichment program, the return of IAEA inspectors to North Korean nuclear facilities, and a declaration of a moratorium on nuclear testing.

If North Korea does implement these steps and sits for the six-party talks, Seoul and Washington, along with the three other participants in the process ― China, Japan and Russia ― need to mobilize all means possible to persuade the North to give up nuclear weapons and open up.

We believe the Stalinist country has no choice but to embrace reform and liberalization because otherwise, it could implode. Discontent has been simmering among not just ordinary people but a large proportion of the ruling class. Kim Jong-il used terror and bribery to control the increasingly disloyal public and ruling elite. But the young new leader lacks his father’s charisma and leadership skills to suppress discontent in the same way.

In the post-Kim Jong-il era, China’s influence on North Korea is likely to grow as the poverty-stricken country will have to rely on its only ally in the world for survival. Hence, we urge Beijing to exercise its increased clout on the North to guide it toward China-style economic reform and liberalization.

Beijing had long sought to persuade Kim Jong-il to reform the North Korean economy in the Chinese style, yet he was afraid of opening up the country. One major reason was that doing so would expose his corrupt leadership style and bring to light all the wrongdoings he had committed ― a nightmare for a leader who had deified himself.

Fortunately, the new leader has had no time to learn and practice his father’s corrupt leadership style. So he has fewer things to worry about in experimenting with the Chinese-style economic reform.

The Seoul government, for its part, needs to craft a new North Korea policy to create an environment conducive to opening its doors. It needs to convince Pyongyang that it has no intention of promoting a regime change in the North, while demonstrating its willingness to help the North restore stability soon.

Seoul policymakers also need to expand economic cooperation with the North to build trust in each other. Mutual confidence will make it easier for the North’s new leadership to gradually open its doors to the South.

While seeking a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations, the Seoul government should not lower its guard. The odds of the North provoking the South in the months to come have diminished as the new leadership in Pyongyang would have to focus on building its power base. Yet the South needs to be prepared for any eventuality that could arise in the North.