The failure of the Hanoi Summit brought great disappointment to those who expected — and hoped — that in the near future economic cooperation between the two Koreas would restart on a large scale.

As recently as late February, many well-informed observers believed that in Hanoi, certain exemptions to the sanctions regime would be granted for some South Korean companies, and that South Korean businesses would soon be able to start working with, or even inside, North Korea.

Now, prospects of such a deal are unclear and, at least for the time being, remote.

Nonetheless, early this year, in