Persuasion is better than force. This central belief behind late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's unprecedented policy of engagement with North Korea promised to unlock half a century of conflict and provocation between the two countries. Kim's Sunshine Policy argued that encouraging North Korea to come out of isolation and end confrontation was better than trying to force it to change ― and it defined a generation in South Korean Politics, allowing millions to dare to believe that half a century of war could be ended.

Now this new book by Chung-in Moon, a Yonsei University professor and former South Korean government adviser, presents a definitive analysis of how Kim developed and implemented his revolutionary policy, the challenges if faced ― and the mistake that Lee Myung-bak's government has made in abandoning it. Moon was a first-hand witness to the key events of the years of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun governments, assisting in shaping the Sunshine Policy, attending the historic inter-Korean Summits in 2000 and 2007 that were fruits of their labors, and chronicling the public, political and global support for the policy.

He argues forcefully that critics in recent years have been wrong to dismiss it as a failed 'appeasement' experiment that was too generous to North Korea. Instead, he sees it as a victim of circumstance, hampered especially by the hardline policies of US President George W. Bush and anxieties over weapons of mass destruction.

Even so, he explains, it did more to normalize North Korea in the world's eyes than any attempt before or since. With tensions and uncertainty between the Koreas at a new high in the first months of Kim Jong Un's regime, the policy and its principles are more sorely needed than ever.