North and South Korea have wrapped up their first reunion for divided families in more than three years, an event that has raised hopes of a sustainable improvement in volatile cross-border ties.
More than 350 South Koreans said a final farewell to 88 North Korean relatives, concluding a second round of meetings for those separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
That the six-day reunion went ahead at all was seen as something of an achievement, given the North's angry condemnation of overlapping South Korea-US military exercises that began on Monday.
Pyongyang's demands that the joint drills be either cancelled or postponed had put the reunion at risk, but a rare concession from the North allowed the meeting to go ahead following the highest-level talks between the two rivals in seven years.
With the reunion over, the question now is where the two sides go from here in order to maintain the momentum towards greater cooperation.
South Korea has already made some gestures in recent days, approving a number of privately-organised aid deliveries to the North and offering official assistance in curbing an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
But observers say Pyongyang will be looking for bigger ticket financial rewards for what it sees as its humanitarian largesse in allowing the reunion to go ahead.
Pyongyang has been pushing Seoul for some time to resume South Korean tours to its Mount Kumgang resort - trips that provided much-needed hard currency in the past.
South Korea suspended the tours after a tourist was shot dead in 2008 by North Korean guards after she strayed from the designated path.
Much will depend on how the North reacts to the just-launched, annual South-US military drills which run until April 18.
Last year's exercises fuelled a sharp, protracted surge in military tensions, with North Korea issuing apocalyptic threats of nuclear strikes against the South and the United States.
So far, Pyongyang's criticism has been relatively understated, but that could change if the financial benefits sought by the North show no sign of appearing.
