South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk together at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, South Korea, April 27, 2018. Korea Summit Press Pool | Pool | Reuters

When North Korean Premier Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in sit across from each other on April 27 to discuss peace, they will share a common language and a 2,000-year history. Leaders of the two nations – which are technically at war —have only met twice since the peninsula was divided in 1948. But the greatest contrast will be their economies. Some market watchers believe Kim Jong Un's suspension of North Korean nuclear tests has strings attached. The leader's statement at a ruling party meeting last Friday included a pledge to seek a favorable international environment for economic development so he can boost his nation's economy. Translated that means seeking the lifting of trade, financial and energy sanctions that hardened every time North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb. His potential pitch: North Korea as a frontier market offers a central location in a booming region encompassing China, Japan and South Korea. It also has rare earth and other minerals estimated to be worth $6 trillion. North Korea's reserves of gold, copper, zinc and magnesite could attract foreign buyers beyond China.

A tale of two economies

South Koreans have learned to live with threats from the North. "The difference in perception inside and outside of Korea could not be more different," said Bom Kim, founder and CEO of Coupang, Korea's largest online retailer, which received a $1.4 billion investment from Softbank in 2015. "If you surveyed a hundred people in the country, there's no panic. A lot of this is theater, but if you watched the news on TV you would think something was about to break out."

Thorny challenges