North Korea has agreed to resume peace talks with South Korea. The South Korean president has staked his reputation on reaching better relations with the north. The south fears that an eventual collapse of the north's rickety communist economy, and perhaps the communist government as well, will result in chaos. So the south wants to convince the north to allow the south to help patch up the northern economy with more efficient enterprises. The northern leaders fear losing political control of their brutal dictatorship, and perhaps their lives.