South Korea President: Reunification not far away

South Korea’s president declared the reunification of Korea was drawing near, in a surprising statement amid soaring tension on the divided peninsula.

While a single Korea is the stated goal of both the communist North and the democratic South, it has seemed a far-away dream this year, following an alleged North Korean attack on a South Korean warship, an announcement by Pyongyang that it was expanding its nuclear programmes and, most recently, the shelling of a South Korean island two weeks ago.