An annual white paper covers the decade - long Sunshine period . It did not change South Korea 's ` ` perverse '' policies , the report says . Today , the last tangible relic of `` sunshine '' is the Kaesong Industrial Zone , a factory park just inside North Korean where 110 Southern firms employ more than 40,000 North Korean workers . The Sunshine Era lasted between 1998 and 2003 .
An annual white paper covers the decade - long Sunshine period . It did not change South Korea 's ` ` perverse '' policies , the report says . The Sunshine Era lasted between 1998 and 2003 .