The One Hundred Billion Dollar Hostage |
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Chinese Stealth
When people hear about Korea, they are usually hearing about North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). And its leader Kim Jong Un makes news. He was dubbed Rocket Man by President Donald Trump due to his determination to create an arsenal of nuclear weapons that could be launched towards the U.S. at will.
North Korea’s southern neighbor on the Korean Peninsula is the Republic of Korea (ROK), also known as South Korea. This democratic nation of just over 50 million people was established in 1948. When hostilities ceased in the Korean War in 1953, the 38th parallel became the rough boundary between the two countries. The U.S.-South Korea Alliance formed in the aftermath of the fighting on the peninsula helps stabilize what continues to be a volatile part of the world. (RELATED: Dangerous Mindsets In Asia: Another Long March By China)
However, there are hidden threats to this part of Northeast Asia that are potentially more damaging to the future of South Korea. Beijing has quietly deployed a different kind of weapon on the Korean Peninsula. It doesn’t involve any military. It is all about money, large amounts of it. Over the last decade, the Chinese Communist Party (the CCP) has methodically cornered the market on South Korean sovereign debt. Recent analysis