South Korea 's relations with North Korea thawed during the beginning of the Fifth Republic , and proposed unification plans were announced , but only held favorable conditions for their respective countries and was mostly used for propaganda . North Korean relations soured in 1983 after the Rangoon bombing , an attempted assassination of President Chun during a state visit in Rangoon , Burma . Three North Korean agents detonated a bomb at the Martyrs ' Mausoleum intending to kill Chun during a wreath laying ceremony to commemorate Aung San . The blast killed 21 people , including four senior South Korean politicians : foreign minister Lee Beom-seok , minister of power resource Suh Sang-chul , economic planning minister and deputy prime minister Suh Suk-Joon , and minister for commerce and industry Kim Dong-Whie . In September 1984 , relations improved when North Korea sent large quantities of aid to South Korea during major flooding . The aid was accepted by Chun despite the North Korean attempt on his life less than a year earlier . In 1985 , Chun proposed an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang , but was instead held in September in Seoul and considered a success in inter-Korean relations . However , the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 on 29 November 1987 by North Korean agents damaged relations again
Rangoon bombing
Rangoon bombing
Fifth Republic of Korea