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This essay addresses tasks and prospects of a second South-North Korea summit that is expected to take place through the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il's visit to Seoul. Tasks confronting a second inter-Korean summit are huge mostly because of the changing U.S. policy toward the North after the inauguration of the Bush administration. The 2000 historic South-North Korea summit was a combined outcome of the Kim Dae-Jung government's “Sunshine Policy” and the Clinton administration's “Engagement policy” toward the socialist country. Both governments' effort to cultivate a better relationship with North Korea also reflected the changing international relations of Asia that have been left behind Europe in shedding the frame of the Cold War. Peaceful coexistence between the two Koreas is a precondition for a long overdue dismantling of the Cold War international order. The lingering danger of military conflict between the U.S. now controlled by hawkish Republicans and its asymmetrical challengers such as North Korea seems to sharply reduce the chances of cooperative partunership between the two Koreas. Many critics of the Bush administration's foreign policy promoting National Missile Defense(NMD) and Theater Missile Defense(TMD) systems also point to close connection between the neoconservative-led administration and the high-tech defense industry as a possible source of “Regime change” approach to North Korea. There is also the domestic side of “Reverse couse,” and it is more critical for inter-Korean relations and East Asian regional order in the gears to come. Domestic critics of reconciliatory policy toward the North focus on the lack of reciprocity on North Korean side and continued weakening of U.S-South Korea alliance since the Bush administration came into office. The Pyunggang summit meeting of June 2000 showed that the two Koreas were ready to handle their problems independently, and the message is still to be taken seriously by surrounding powers that are envisioning a bid for regional hegemony. It is a current government's responsibility to reduce military threat posed by North Korea while offering the North enough security guarantees. To achieve ends, South Korean government should engage in a close and open dialogue with the North and simultaneously direct more attention to drawing diplomatic support from the larger international community. So doing the South Korean government should be able to distinguish two issue areas of U.S-Korea alliance: one is regarding a more equal relationship between two countries and the other North Korean problems. It is crucial to keep debates over the former from unduly affecting the course of dealing with the latter. A second inter-Korean summit would be an important occasion in which South Korean government proves that U.S-Korea alliance and a more independent role for the South are not incompatible.