You may be aware that directions aside, East and West, "North" and "South", represent the socio-economic and political status of countries in the world. China and Russia belong to the East, US and others in the West. The developed or developing economies are also broadly classified as the "North", the least developing ones the "South".
The "North-South" Divide concept assumes: what the "North" has (such as high technology, integrated economy and political stability) suggests what the "South" has not. There can be breakthroughs though. China's technological, economic and political developments and North Korea's strategic capabilities are examples.
The decades-old "North-South" Divide in Korea intrigues me, when I heard about their reunification pursuit. While the South Korean presidency is confined to a single five-year term, the term of the "great person born of heaven" in the North is for life. The urge to achieve the reunification goal should be from the South rather than the North in Korea.
In Hong Kong, the century-old "North-South" Divide was resolved via the Sino-British Declaration 1984. As the principles, rules and processes of the lab-concept "one country - two systems" are institutionalized, the job of the relevant actors was done. The successive actors of the system should have the capacity to follow through, I believe!