PRESS RELEASE
South Korea Being Destroyed by Capitulation to Obama’s War on China
Feb 11, 2016 (EIRNS)—South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has capitulated to President Obama’s massive pressure to end her collaboration with China and Russia ("Korea’s Eurasian Vision" she called it), and under the guise of joining Obama’s belligerence toward North Korea, essentially joined Obama’s war plans against China. This comes at the same time that the Korean economy is in a precipitous decline, battered by the global crisis and trade collapse.
President Park Wednesday announced that she was suspending all work at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, set up in 2004 as a step toward cooperation between North and South. About 124 South Korean companies have factories in the Complex, hiring about 54,000 North Korean workers at relatively low wages. There are more than 5,000 South Korean suppliers that sell intermediary materials and parts to the 124 companies in Kaesong, according to the Korea Federation of SMEs.
Park’s government made the ridiculous argument that the income to these workers, a total of $560 million in 11 years, was being used to build nuclear weapons and missiles.
Pyongyang responded by demanding all South Koreans out of Kaesong within 24 hours, seizing all properties, and placing the area under military occupation.å
North Korea’s successful satellite launch on Feb. 7, following a test of a hydrogen-type nuclear weapon in January, has provided Obama with the excuse to massively build up strategic forces in South Korea and in the region, expanding its military "ring around China," the so-called pivot to Asia.
Until this week, the Park government has strongly opposed Obama’s demand that the US be allowed to set up a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system, based on the obvious fact that such missiles and radar are not needed against near-by North Korea, but are only intended to target China and the Russian Far East. Now she has capitulated, announcing that formal talks with the US on the THAAD System have begun.
South Korean firms are concerned that China may retaliate against the THAAD deployment by reducing business ties. About 26% of South Korea’s exports go to China, and the large firms like Samsung and LG have huge investments in China. The first "Silk Road" train which reached Germany last week from China carried mostly Samsung goods produced in China. Korea Times reported that "Officials in the tourism, technology, retail and automotive industries said Wednesday that the companies are closely monitoring on how the escalating political tension in Northeast Asia will affect their businesses China—the most crucial market for all of them."
The two largest stock exchanges in Seoul fell by 3% and 5% respectively today after being closed for three days for the Chinese New Year—the largest declines since 2012.
