Remarks on Moon’s suggestion, “Economic Cooperation with North Korea” to combat Japan

Definitely, South Korea cannot overtake Japan through economic cooperation with North Korea

South Korea can overtake Japan economically by cooperating with North Korea, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday, amid an escalating trade row between Seoul and Tokyo. “If inter-Korean economic cooperation leads to a peace-driven economy, we will be able to catch up to Japan’s dominance,” he said.

A “peace-driven economy” is Moon’s vision for inter-Korean economic cooperation, based on North Korea’s denuclearisation and relief from sanctions. Moon’s efforts to engage with North Korea have been stalled since a second meeting in Hanoi in February between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart without any agreement on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. — Reuters, 2019.08.05

I hope it a funny joke. I highly value the effort of Moon’s office to balance out what the previous office did make its mistakes over Japan but does not agree upon this point. Although assuming that the North is close to the diplomatic policies of Mr. Trump’s idea, still deeming the nation as a ‘rogue nation’ or whatsoever in that context.

Japan is one of the critical allies with America, even highlighting under the disputes the U.S. over China. It is possible to highlight that Japan has culpability ONLY under the fact that the nation is imposing the penalties unproportionally, which can undermine the stability of East Asia.

The argument that I believe the best for Korea is here: Japan’s legal ability to retaliate against S.Korea would be in confined to the point where Japanese companies have to reparate for S.Koreans used as forced labor. However, the Japanese government does not limit its action but vehemently imposing the restriction in a much larger area.

The problem here in Moon’s remark is, 1) to define Japan as the “the rogue nation to overcome” is “overkill” considering the dynamics and status of S.Korea, 2) this would lead to blur the point where Japan is making unproportionate restriction just far beyond history disputes, (which is clearly leverage point of Korea to have) 3) even Inter-Koreas idea even worsen the “tacit” images that Moon is pro-North Korea regime which has possibilities to turn ahead for China to pursuit nationalism, which have deprived the Seoul’s trust of Westerns.

Under the WTO, the right of a country to respond to a violation of trade rules by one of its trading partners has traditionally been limited to no more than the value of the exporting country’s lost trade.

Similarly, if this had been a WTO dispute that ruled in Japan’s favor, its ability to retaliate against South Korea would in essence be capped at the total amount of compensation Japanese companies had been forced to pay to South Koreans used as forced labor.

If Japan’s concerns have nothing to do with the Supreme Court issue, the current standoff should have been relatively simple to solve. Japan would provide a clear indication of where it believes South Korean export controls do not meet international standards and what remedial actions South Korea could take to quickly be restored to the “white list.”

If the dispute is rooted even in part in Japan’s own frustration with the South Korean Supreme Court’s decision on forced labor, Tokyo’s action is economically disproportionate to its complaint over Seoul’s action. — The Diplomat, Troy Stangarone, 2019.08.05

We all know that promoting nationalistic ideology like talking about the economic cooperation between inter-Koreas is not feasible to answer for feud intensity. It even lingers the problem. The market today reflects concerns.