The much-publicized summit of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June in Pyongyang, is a big house-cleaning job.

The two leaders are set to begin, during their three-day session, June 12 through 14, scouring age-old mess dumped there by outsiders with little resistance from Koreans.

The outsiders-Japanese, Americans and Russians- eager to satisfy their greed, found Koreans easy prey in pursuing their power game. The fruits of their manipulation turned out to be "Colonialization of Korea" and "The 38th Parallel."

It is heartening that, at long last, Koreans themselves are going to try to clean up and this time outsiders are standing by as spectators. What had appeared like a mission impossble no longer seems that way.

It is comforting, too, that the two governments have reached the point where they have come to realize the necessity of a dialogue. Economically and politically South Koreans are no longer poor, isolated and powerless as they used to be 50 or100 years ago, when they didn’t have a say about tragic decisions which the superpowers imposed on them.

At the turn of the 20th century Japan pursued its colonialization scheme in secret negotiations with the United States. After World War II, the United States and Soviet Union divided the Korean peninsula in half along the 38th parallel in a hasty, convenient way to disarm the Japanese troops in Korea.

Japan’s move to colonialize Korea began when the so-called Taft-Katsura Treaty was sealed in July 1905. This agreement essentially turned Korea over to Japan. The division of the peninsula, the Korean War and bitter animosities between the two governments for half a century ensued.

Finally, Koreans have come a full circle in attempting to untangle the shameful knots.

Main forces that brought the two leaders to a negotiating table are the South’s economic growth and the North’s prolonged famine. Like West Germany, South Korea became an economic powerhouse that can afford to offer aid to North Korea.

But without changes in attitudes on both sides, the present move could not have happened.

I know little about how North Koreans have changed. But South Koreans’ perception of their northern compatriots is remarkably different from what I saw 30 years ago. South Koreans have become generous toward the people who are suffering hardships. According to the South Korean press, they are respectful of North Koreans and are careful when mentioning their economic plight. Condescending tones prevalent in the past commentaries have disappeared.

And yet, it’s still uneasy that the job to be tackled by the two leaders will once again determine the next chapter of Korean history.

The success of the monumental task depends on the right frame of mind of the two leaders and their advisors. Their focus should be on the interests of their people not their political agendas.

They must remember that a handful of superpower leaders sealed the fate of Koreans with no thought to their welfare. Similarly, what the two Kims must keep in mind is that their decisions could have a lasting impact on the generations to come.