Last summer, in an encouraging sign that relations between the Koreas were improving,
a convoy of 50 trucks from the Hyundai Group of South Korea rolled across the heavily fortified border into North Korea, carrying a most precious cargo.
Inside the trucks were 500 head of cattle, a gift from Chung Ju Yung, Hyundai's billionaire founder,
to help feed the famine-stricken North.
At the time, Hyundai's cattle donation was the most shining example yet that President Kim Dae Jung's policy of constructively engaging the North was working.
A Buddhist priest, on hand for the highly publicized cattle drive, banged a wooden block
and prayed that the animals would survive until the Korean Peninsula was reunited.
A year later, those prayers appear to have gone unanswered.
North Korea announced recently that about half the cattle had died,
casualties of what it said was a sinister plot by South Korea's intelligence service.
The North accused the South's spy agency of force-feeding the cows vinyl rope,
large nails and other indigestible items before the animals were shipped.