COMMENT A tense and fast changing world
Now and Then... I
n all of my many years I have never known so much tension in
the world as today, although I was recently reliably informed by
my far more successful journalist father that the present ‘aggressive exchanges’ between North Korea and South Korea/USA are hardly without historic precedent elsewhere. But it is a fact that most of us have been
fortunate enough to live the majority of our years so far in relatively peaceful times, which only serves to highlight how ugly and contrived overt aggression is when it finally surfaces. However, it has to be said that this all
takes on an altogether new onerous tone when we hear mad utterings from North Korea, vowing that it will not hesitate to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes against its enemies. Just to remind us all, this is a first-strike
nuclear missile attack designed to destroy an enemy’s capacity to respond – based on the assumption that it is planning an imminent attack. In short, read the signs right and you
start a war where no one nation can ever actually finish a winner, but at least you get the first punch in. Such is the very real tension that now
exists between North and South Korea which has acted as the multi-faceted catalyst to directly threaten the comparatively less significant $8bn duty free market in South Korea – plus that country’s tourism industry.
Putting this in perspective... Of course, talking about such potential conflict in the same sentence as a lost tour group or one less high spending Chinese tourist is obviously both mad and sad but this is the world we are now living in. As has been well documented, this dark
farce has simply escalated following the objections by China to the THAAD missile defence system that is now installed on a second-rate golf course that once belonged to the Lotte Group. As is well documented, the Chinese
government has now accused the American anti-missile defence system of having the capability to spy on its own defence
178 TRBUSINESS
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor system being tested by the US army is designed to knock down other missiles, but Seoul has upset China. (Image credit: US Army)
installations, so infringing on China’s internal security. By contrast, South Korea argues that it
needs the system as a deterrent, should North Korea launch a pre-emptive strike on Seoul. For its part, China has responded by looking for South Korea’s Achilles Heel and quickly identifying it by strangling Seoul’s tourism and duty free shopping industries. As a result, it is hardly a secret that
Lotte is now getting a pounding for having the audacity to sell its golf course to the South Korean Government, although whether it had any choice considering this was a matter of national defence is another matter entirely. Lotte and other companies have also all
been on the receiving end, as Chinese tour companies have been told to stop selling packages to Chinese overseas travellers and redirect their aeroplanes to land somewhere (or anywhere) other than Seoul. The result is a huge downturn in both
Chinese tourist arrivals and duty free sales in South Korea and a boycott of retail goods sold by Lotte’s 80 or more stores that used to trade very happily in leading Chinese cities. Of course, those looking for a political
statesperson to step up in South Korea to try and talk detente – or just common sense where it is needed – better look hard. South Korea currently has an interim
government after former President Park Geun-hye was placed under house arrest on corruption and bribery charges, while four of the most senior members of the Lotte dynasty have all been indicted on serious corruption charges. «
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MAY 2017
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