Korea Times<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNK sanctions: Green light for profit seekers and red light for concerned citizens\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n December 1, 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emanuel Pastreich<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the newspapers give us\nwall-to-wall reports about the tight economic sanctions that North Korea is\nsubject to, sanctions meant to bring it to its knees and make it give up its\nnuclear weapons program forever, we also observe a steady flow of articles\nabout meetings between government officials, Korean corporations and North\nKorean officials to discuss investment, infrastructure and other business\nopportunities. The Japanese and Chinese media have also offered occasional\nreferences to such confidential business negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the North Koreans came to South\nKorea to check out Pangyo’s Techno Valley on November 14 for a special tour of\nits facilities. That program was obviously only part of a larger program of\nnegotiations and discussions for North Korea’s development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So what is the point of those\n“crippling” economic sanctions that limit all interactions with North\nKorea? Well, it appears as if the sanctions are intended to block the\nparticipation of little people in the dialogue with North Korea that is\nobviously advancing quickly. We have lots of discussions with major\ncorporations and North Korean officials. But we do not have Korean\nenvironmental groups, or other NGOs concerned with the environmental impact of\nthe projects being discussed, travelling to North Korea. In fact, we do not\neven have a discussion in the Korean press about the criteria by which it is\ndetermined who is subject to the sanctions, and who is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us focus in on one important shift\nin South Korean policy toward North Korea that may have tremendous\nsignificance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When President Moon Jae-in recently\nshook up his economic team, supposedly to make it more “market\nfriendly,” he appointed, on November 7, Goldman Sachs economic analyst\nKwon Goo-hoon as chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic\nCooperation, a position with the rank of minister. Kwon had previously been\nbased in Hong Kong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The official story is that President\nMoon was moved by Kwon’s talk on KBS about the Fourth Industrial Revolution\nentitled “Brilliant Insights reaching out 10,000 miles” and then\npersonally decided to appoint him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The most serious problem, buried by much\nof the press, is the fact that Kwon will keep his position as an analyst at\nGoldman Sachs while serving as chairman for this committee. The conflict of\ninterest is blatant, as Goldman Sachs could potentially stand to make billions\nof dollars from speculation in North Korean development, and other economic\ninteractions of South Korea with Russia and China related to the work of the\ncommittee. That would be truer if it has access to juicy information that is\nnot shared with others because of the so-called “economic sanctions.”\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The previous chairman of this critical\ncommittee for coordinating North Korean policy for government and industry,\ntogether with China, Russia and other nations, was the National Assemblyman\nSong Young-gil, who stepped down in July. Song has had a long and deep interest\nin North Korea dating back to his undergraduate days, and he was fully\nqualified, with no conflict of interest, to serve as chairman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When it came to finding a replacement,\nthere were plenty of government officials, politicians and academics who could\neasily have replaced Song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The official statement from the Blue\nHouse regarding the reasons for Kwon’s appointment reads: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “In response to the movement of\nrelations with the North into a period of action, Mr. Kwon was most appropriate\nbecause of his work with international organizations and investment\ninstitutions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a sense, his blatant conflict of\ninterest is presented as his strongest point. Perhaps if you are working with\nthe allegedly corrupt Trump administration there is some truth to that\nstatement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We can infer something about what Kwon’s\nrole may be from an article that appeared in the Financial Times on November 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The opening sentence of the Financial\nTimes article says it all: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “South Korea has named a senior\nGoldman Sachs economist to help bolster economic ties with North Korea amid\ngrowing signs of discord between Seoul and Washington over how to deal with\nPyongyang.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The poorly formed sentence speaks\nvolumes. The author is trying to explain how the decision was made without\ngiving away the story \u2015 he fails of course, and spills the beans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What does Goldman Sachs have to offer\nthat will “bolster economic ties” with North Korea? Certainly someone\nwho spent the past few years in Hong Kong handling portfolios for a global firm\nthat will try to squeeze money out of anything, from the destruction of rainforests\nand mining of low-grade coal, to investments in factories around the world that\nemploy people under miserable conditions \u2015 a firm that devotes itself to casino\nspeculation in currencies and in commodities and has no expertise on North\nKorea as it is lived by North Koreans. More importantly, he has been trained\nnot to care about people or about the long-term of a country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goldman Sachs has no interest in\neducating North Koreans about climate change, in advocating for the right of\nNorth Koreans to organize labor unions, or to drink safe water, or ensuring\nthat they will have pensions and excellent medical care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kwon will be deeply involved in plans\nfor North Korea’s development but has the wrong motivations and the wrong\ntraining to do what needs to be done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Goldman Sachs connection is helpful\nto the Blue House in that it can be used as a conduit in making a deal with the\nvultures surrounding Donald Trump. Perhaps the relationship will give some\nfinancial benefits to some in Seoul when Wall Street carves up North Korea\nIraq-style. Certainly Kwon has an acute sense of what those around Trump\nactually want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Financial Times goes on the explain\nthat “Seoul is pushing for greater economic engagement, while Washington\nhas maintained a hard line on enforcing sanctions in an effort to spur the\ndenuclearization of North Korea.” Maybe. But we have not seen a ghost of a\ntrace of efforts to promote denuclearization by Trump and associates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If Trump was interested in reducing the\nthreat of war in Northeast Asia, he would push the United States to adopt a no\n“first strike” policy for nuclear weapons and he would honor and\nexpand existing treaties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The article cites a Blue House official,\nspokesman Yoon Young-chan stating why Kwon is so qualified, <\/p>\n\n\n\n “(Kwon) is going to provide us with\nnew insight and imagination to create the new growth engine of our economy by\npushing ahead with northern economic co-operation, such as energy links and the\ndevelopment of a northern sea route.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us parse this cryptic statement. How\nmight it be that the Goldman Sachs analyst imagines Seoul will create a\n“new growth engine” through “northern economic\nco-operation,” “energy links” and “northern sea\nroute?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n The vague term “new growth\nengine” refers to the false assumption that the speculative activities of\ninvestment banks will create real jobs for ordinary people. The incentive for\nsuch banks is to drive down wages, not raise them, and they are attracted to North\nKorea in that its wages are lower, not because of any potential it has to\ndevelop its potential or increase its standard of living. The only way to\nimprove the situation in North Korea is to severely limit the actions of\nforeign banks (much as Park Chung-hee did in the 1960s and 1970s) and build up\ndomestic expertise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Energy links” refers to money\nto be made by investment banks by pumping oil and gas through pipes from\nRussia, over North Korea, and on into South Korea, and perhaps beyond. The\ninvestment banks are deeply concerned with this pipeline. They want to make\nsure that the operation of the pipeline is private, and it is not cooperative,\nor run by the government. They want the discussions about who will own and run\nthe pipeline to be opaque and the profits to be made to be kept out of the\npublic record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Needless to say, there is no discussion\nin the media about the catastrophic impact of oil, coal and natural gas on the\nclimate regionally and globally. “Energy links” may also refer to\nstrip mining North Korea for coal. One thing is for sure, Goldman Sachs is\nnever going to suggest that the coal should be left in the ground, or the use\nof fossil fuels be quickly reduced to zero to avoid catastrophic climate\nchange. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are multiple interpretations\npossible for the expression “northern sea route,” but most likely it\nrefers to the current bid to make money off of the melting of the Arctic by\nestablishing new sea routes to Europe to the north of Russia, thus further\ndamaging the ecosystem, releasing more emissions and of course making money for\na handful of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the kicker in the article is this\nline, “Amid sluggish growth at home, Seoul has increasingly looked to\nNorth Korea, with its untapped markets, substantial mineral deposits and inordinately\ncheap workforce.” That is to say that the creation of a destructive\nconsumption economy in North Korea, and the construction of highways and\napartment buildings will make some people quick cash, even if that process is\nultimately destructive to the culture and society of North Korea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a great attraction for some in\nthat coal, iron and rare-earth metals can be mined in North Korea without\nconcern for environmental impact, or for the rights of labor, or concern about\nwhere the profits go. What do you think the priority will be for a Goldman\nSachs economist? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I find the term “inordinately cheap\nworkforce” to be inordinately offensive. North Korea is attractive to Kwon\nand his friends because it offers laborers who have a good work ethic and will\naccept low salaries so they can be used as a substitute for laborers in\nVietnam, or Myanmar, or China. The concern is 1000 percent about overseas\nprofits and zero percent about North Koreans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If anything, investment banks would like\nto use North Korea as a lever to drive down labor costs in South Korea and\nperhaps as a hammer to crush South Korean labor unions in the same way that\nAmerican banks financed right-to-work factories in the South as a means of\nbreaking the power of unions in the North. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What exactly is Goldman Sachs best known\nfor? One of its greatest recent achievements was its work in Greece, where it\nengineered a program in 2015 that hid the true debt that the country took on\nand doubled the amount before producing a financial crisis that leveled the\ncountry. Goldman Sachs promoted the predatory lending in the United States that\nbrought on the subprime crisis and destroyed many middle-income families in\nthat country, and around the world. Goldman Sachs also lobbied for government\npolicies that cut essential services to ordinary citizens and took advantage of\ntax dollars to generate private profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goldman Sachs is expert at exploiting\nlocal residents to create profits for its clients overseas and engaging in open\ndeceptions about the impact of the policies it pushes. Any careful analysis of\nits credentials would suggest that its former employees, let alone current\nemployees, should be banned permanently from government work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the claim that someone with a\nGoldman Sachs background could be helpful for resolving problems with the Trump\nadministration is entirely appropriate. The Trump administration is dominated\nby members of this Goldman Sachs to a degree never seen in American history.\nThe “vampire squid” that makes a profit through parasitic economic\nleveraging produced Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who had run various\nhedge funds and then gutted Sears for personal profit, before taking on the\nU.S. economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The short-sighted, profit-driven view of\nNorth Korea is not limited to the supercomputers calculating profits at Goldman\nSachs. The National Land Forum on “Land use and infrastructure in an age\nof North-South Economic Cooperation” that was held on November 19 featured\npresentations by four professors, all experts in construction and development,\nwho gave their perspectives on the potential of North Korea. The underlying\nassumption behind all four presentations was that the massive industrialization\nof South Korea, its tremendous dependency on imports of petroleum, coal and\nfoodstuffs, the development of a consumption society that encourages waste and\nalienation, and a ruthlessly competitive culture were positive developments\nthat should be introduced into North Korea quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two talks described North Korea as a\n“blue ocean” for building infrastructure that would revive the\nconstruction industry where some once imagined under President Lee Myung-bak\nthat they would make a fortune in the Middle East and Central Asia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no discussion in any of the\ntalks about educating North Koreans, about training North Koreans to conduct\nenvironmental impact studies, about renewable energy, or about the impact of\nclimate change on North Korea. Nor was the need to restore lost soil in North\nKorea touched on, or the need for reforestation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Professor Choi Ki-ju of Ajoo University\nmentioned a fascinating statistic in his presentation. He noted that domestic\ntransportation in North Korea is 86 percent rail, 12 percent highways and roads\nand 2 percent waterways. South Korea is, according to him, the reverse, with\nabout 85 percent of transportation carried on by highways and roads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the implication of his talk was that\nNorth Korea should start building freeways and filling them with automobiles\nthat release deadly emissions. The conclusion should have been that South Korea\nshould adopt the healthier ratio that North Korea has kept since before\nhighways were introduced en masse by Park Chung-hee as part of his development\nscheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n North Korea does offer tremendous\nopportunities for South Korea, but the focus on development must change. We\nneed to spend more time thinking about how individuals, families and local\ncommunities can work together with North Koreans to build new systems for\neducation, for culture and for public service. A healthy integration will take\nplace between individuals over years. It cannot possibly be achieved by those\nwho calculate short-term profits. Moreover, climate change has altered the\nentire game so that ideas about development, even from recent history, no\nlonger apply. Anyone who is accustomed to thinking only in terms of profit does\nnot have much of a role in North Korea at this critical moment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Korea Times \u201cNK sanctions: Green light for profit seekers and red light for concerned citizens\u201d December 1, 2018 Emanuel Pastreich Although the newspapers give us wall-to-wall reports about the tight economic sanctions that North Korea is subject to, sanctions meant to bring it to its knees and make it give up its nuclear weapons program … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9296425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9296425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}