Trump's Tariff Retaliation Strikes Lee Jae-myung's Black-Lock Regime, Canceling North Korea-US Summit
US President Trump's tariff retaliation, which dealt a blow to Lee Jae-myung's Black-Lock Regime, appears to have nullified the April North Korea-US summit strategy.
In an unusually lengthy TruSocial statement, President Trump announced the restoration of 25% tariffs in retaliation for President Lee's "failure to implement the great agreement reached on July 30th." Just prior to this, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok of the Lee Jae-myung regime visited Vice President Vance and requested the dispatch of a special envoy to North Korea, but this request was apparently rejected.
Lee Jae-myung's regime immediately reversed course, sending Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, the driving force behind the North Korea-US summit strategy, to China as a peace envoy. This prompted Trump's announcement on the 26th that he would "reinstate retaliatory tariffs."
The Lee Jae-myung Black Rock administration implemented the V-Strategy, which aimed to rapidly boost the South Korean stock market by leveraging North Korea's special needs, including the Wonsan-Kalma development project, following a sharp rise in the South Korean stock market index by 5,000 points.
This strategy also included the entry of private equity funds into North Korea and the Trump administration's North Korea-US summit in April, and the efforts to attract foreign investment. President Lee responded to the sharp rise in the exchange rate (weak won) by announcing at a New Year's press conference that the won would be "around 1,400 won in 1-2 months."
Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yoon-chul then approved Black Rock, the dominant player in the South Korean stock market, for "dollar market dominance" with the National Pension Service, the largest shareholder. Black Rock, the largest private equity fund in the US, is the largest shareholder of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix (the owner is the largest shareholder).
Kookmin Bank is the second-largest shareholder, followed by the National Pension Service. Shinhan Bank is also the second-largest shareholder, effectively dominating the South Korean stock market and reaping the largest profits during the market surge.
Blackrock already holds an absolute controlling interest in Hanwha Ocean's US subsidiary, Philly Shipyard, which is the largest beneficiary of the $150 billion MAS investment in the US Navy submarine construction facility provided by the Lee Jae-myung administration. It holds a 5.7% stake in the company. It is also the third-largest shareholder of Samsung Securities, which spearheaded the Moon Jae-in administration's V strategy and served as the chief of staff for policy.
SK Group's US asset transfer strategy, which relies on Blackrock, led to the establishment of a new AI investment corporation, which diverted 10 trillion won in overseas investments to the US. As the largest beneficiary under the Lee Jae-myung administration, SK's stock price soared.
Blackrock appears to have provided the Blue House with the negotiated amount and method of MASGA during the initial tariff agreement, which Minister Kim proposed during a private meeting at Secretary Lutnick's private residence, where Minister Kim held a meeting.
With the inauguration of the Lee Jae-myung administration, securities firms heavily recommended SK Hynix as a stock expected to rise and encouraged Korean investors to buy it through their stock market reports.
The private equity fund-driven push for a North Korea-US summit began with a CIA operation in 2017, and a secret strategic visit to North Korea led to a pro-Trump private equity fund in Singapore brokering the 2018 Singapore-based North Korea-US summit. Samsung Securities, which had spurred a surge in the South Korean stock market, released a "V-surge" report amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Moon Jae-in administration's Blue House pushed for its implementation, but it failed due to skyrocketing real estate prices. At the second Hanoi summit, President Trump offered North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a "prosperity strategy for North Korea, similar to South Korea's," but the proposal ultimately failed.
President Trump wrote a lengthy statement on TruthSocial, unusually detailing South Korea's internal structure, unlike his previous, shorter statements.
<The Korean legislature is not implementing its agreement with the United States.
Trade agreements are crucial to the United States. We have swiftly lowered tariffs in accordance with the agreed-upon deal, and we naturally expect our trading partners to do the same.
President Lee Jae-myung and I concluded an excellent agreement for both countries on July 30th of last year, and we reaffirmed its terms during my visit to Korea on October 29th of last year. So why isn't the Korean National Assembly approving it?
While it is within the Korean National Assembly's authority to not enact our historic trade agreement, I am accordingly raising reciprocal tariffs on all Korean products, including automobiles, lumber, and pharmaceuticals, from 15% to 25%.>
Trump's language specifically described his "delaying tactics" regarding the "July 30th agreement between Lee Jae-myung and me," and the key point was "reaffirmation in Korea on October 29th." Therefore, President Lee's initial refusal in early August, when he "did not sign at the exchange rate," was a sign of the "delay."
The target, and the subsequent "second reaffirmation" of "permitting annual installments of $20 billion," were documented in detail, and the subsequent process of "introducing a National Assembly bill" was recorded in detail, without the US President's knowledge.
Trump's expression was "Step 1 of implementing the agreement deal," specifically stating that "introducing legislation in the National Assembly = US tariff reduction" would lead to "delaying the deal" if progress was made, and "restoring retaliatory tariffs" would be interpreted as "terminating the deal."
Lee Jae-myung's Democratic Party mainstream has been blatantly employing "delaying tactics" while awaiting a "US Supreme Court ruling against him," hoping that a North Korea-US summit would first be established, revitalizing the South Korean stock market and the "North Korea special," and then allowing the Republican Party to win the November midterm elections and stabilize the Trump administration.
Bloomberg reported that the South Korean government "will delay its planned investment of up to $20 billion in the US this year due to the weak won," adding, "A source familiar with the matter said, 'Investment will have to be delayed until the foreign exchange market stabilizes.'" "He said," the report said on the 20th.
Deputy Prime Minister Koo told Bloomberg on the 22nd, "We are not delaying the $20 billion investment. We are currently in the process of selecting investment projects, and there are procedures to follow. Considering these procedures, it will be difficult for the investment funds to be executed within the first half of this year," and "We don't know about the second half, but it will not be easy to execute at least in the first half," admitting to a "strategy to delay execution."
The Blue House stated on the 27th that "there has not yet been an official notification or detailed explanation from the US government regarding President Trump's announcement of a second tariff hike."
President Lee announced a "conclusion" ahead of his summit with Trump last July. Immediately after arriving in the United States for the summit, he met with BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink. BlackRock signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for global cooperation in the AI industry with Minister of Science and Technology Bae Kyung-hoon.
BlackRock Chairman Lee told President Lee, "We will actively cooperate by connecting global capital to help Korea become Asia's AI capital."
The tariff negotiations began with Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jeong-gwan visiting Secretary of Commerce Lutnick's house and agreeing to the total amount of "$450 billion, $200 billion investment, Mars $150 billion + $100 billion natural gas, plus large corporations (announced $200 billion at the summit)", and President Trump immediately announced an "agreement" and a "White House summit", and President Lee announced a "conclusion", but following the "failure to sign" at the summit, about 9 days later, President Lee stated that he "refused to sign due to the exchange rate" and demanded "renegotiation", and at the Gyeongju summit, they again agreed to "installment payment" under "reconfirmation", and specified in the document that it would be "retroactively applied to the month corresponding to the date of legislative introduction", and the Democratic Party and the National Assembly announced that "the date of legislative passage would not be applied."
Representative Jeong Tae-ho of the Democratic Party, the floor leader of the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Committee, confirmed the "delaying tactic" by stating that "the content of the Korea-US agreement was the introduction of a bill, and there was no timetable for passage."
The President's 'agreement' cannot contain a binding clause on the National Assembly, and it was agreed upon between Korea and the US in the form of only measures following the administration's 'bill introduction'. The very idea of the National Assembly saying 'since there is no content to be processed by the National Assembly in the agreement, we will not provide investment funds by excluding US interests from the passage of the bill' is tantamount to the Korean National Assembly 'breaking the agreement due to distrust in the Lee Jae-myung administration', and conversely, from Trump's point of view, it is interpreted as 'the National Assembly colluding with the Korean President to deploy delaying tactics'.
Kwon Nam-hoon, president of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET), said, "Rather than raising tariffs per se, the fundamental objective seems to be to secure the ratification of the investment agreement, currently delayed in the National Assembly, as a definitive variable." He added, "With the possibility of the U.S. reciprocal tariffs being invalidated by the Supreme Court, I suspect President Trump is displaying a certain impatience out of a desire to quickly secure a firm commitment before the situation drags on any longer."
Jang Sang-sik, director of the International Trade Research Institute at the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), told Yonhap, "President Trump's mention of tariffs on items and reciprocal tariffs is interpreted as a negotiating message intended to pressure the National Assembly for the swift passage of the Special Act on Investment in the U.S., rather than an immediate tariff increase."
Shin Won-kyu, a senior research fellow at the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), said, "The president's comments on tariffs and reciprocal tariffs are interpreted as a negotiating message intended to pressure the National Assembly for the swift passage of the Special Act on Investment in the U.S., rather than an immediate tariff increase." "President Trump is feeling political pressure both domestically and internationally as the Supreme Court's reciprocal tariff ruling approaches," the official told Yonhap News Agency. "It appears he feels uneasy as issues that could weaken his domestic and international support base, such as his anti-immigration policy, the Greenland issue, and the conflict with the European Union (EU) and Canada, have recently surfaced."
Lee Jae-myung's Black Rock Regime, driven by a strategy to attract foreign investors, saw economic growth plummet to -0.3% in the fourth quarter. Exports shrank 2.1% due to a decline in automobiles, machinery, and equipment. Imports also decreased 1.7%, led by natural gas and automobiles.
The KOSPI index surpassed 5,000 due to the plunge in domestic demand.
Conversely, as of the 25th, foreign investors held 1,398.0348 trillion won of the total market capitalization of the Korean stock market, accounting for 37.18%. Foreign securities firms rushed to announce a "KOSPI 6500" index last year.
Foreign investors The holding ratio was in the 31-32% range in the first half of last year before the Lee Jae-myung administration. It began to increase in September after President Lee agreed to a $650 billion investment in the US at the White House in late August. It surpassed 35% in October, 36% in late December, and 37% in January, reaping high returns from both rising stock prices and a rising exchange rate (undervalued Korean won).
The chaebol leaders who invested over $200 billion in the US were the primary beneficiaries of rising stock prices in the defense, AI, and semiconductor industries, providing the government with a foundation for the rise of billionaires under the Trump administration. In Korea, high inflation and the rapid rise in expensive apartment prices created an extreme asset class system.
The compressed, high growth under the US security umbrella of the Cold War era heightened the security crisis and transformed the rigid system into an export-oriented economy of labor-intensive light industry and capital-intensive heavy industry. Subsequently, the US's strategy of overproduction and socialist pressure shifted to a strategy of shock therapy-driven stock price surges due to excess supply in Korea after Reagan.
The expansion of the fiscal deficit also contributed to this shift. The Lee Jae-myung administration appears to have attempted to create an extremely polarized society in a capitalist nation by adopting the "V-strategy" approach, which relied on foreign investment to "guarantee high returns" for foreign investment, as a shock therapy based on "breaking the socialist spine."
During Trump's first term, the Moon Jae-in administration attempted a V-strategy for the stock market surge, linking it with Samsung in the COVID-19 quarantine system, but failed.
The Lee Jae-myung-Blackrock administration deliberately manipulated the recession into a "growth phase." Just before the South Korea-US summit in New York last August, the two-pronged approach of "Trump-Kim Jong-un capital development in Wonsan, North Korea" and "strengthening military capabilities" were used as shock therapy for a stock market rebound. The "April North Korea-US summit" became the core of the strategy, and South Korea appears to have attempted to transform into a high-return structure.
To maintain the Cold War system, South Korea's defense industry used US self-propelled artillery, tanks, and Boeing F-16s as blueprints provided without intellectual property rights. By producing and modifying these weapons into "Korean-style" versions, the country rapidly grew into a "distribution network for low-cost US-standard weapons." In its strategy to lure Eastern Europe into NATO, South Korea became a strategic weapon for stock price increases, becoming a low-cost supplier of US-standard weapons.
The 2018 Panmunjom Declaration between North and South Korea centered on a "disarmament agreement." However, the agreement was broken when the US Republican Party's "peace based on strength" policy prioritized military buildups and stock price increases. President Lee Jae-myung was the first to adopt the Trump administration's "America First" strategy of pressuring allies to build up their military forces, making the resumption of dialogue with North Korea seem impossible.
At the Cabinet meeting on this day, President Lee strongly criticized the “delay in National Assembly work,” saying, “The National Assembly is now too slow to work.”
The New York Times reported on the 27th, “President Lee’s senior aides gathered on the 27th to discuss how to respond to the recent deterioration in relations with the Trump administration.” Spokesperson Kang Yoo-jung noted that the White House has not yet issued an executive order to put President Trump’s new tariff threat into action, and said, “We plan to handle this issue calmly and convey to the U.S. our will to implement the agreement.”
The NYT continued, "In the trade agreement, South Korea agreed to invest up to $20 billion a year and set aside $150 billion for U.S. shipbuilding projects. But last week, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol told Bloomberg News that the first $20 billion budget is unlikely to be allocated in the first half of the year due to the time-consuming process of selecting projects. Analysts said such reports may have angered President Trump," he said. “It was promoted as a key achievement of the government,” he said.
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