People’s Democracy Party (‘Republic of Korea’)
The bandit imperialist United States is plundering the colonial ‘Republic of Korea (South Korea, hereinafter the ‘ROK’).’ What has been publicly disclosed already amounts to 350 billion dollars in cash prepaid investments in the United States, plus an additional 200 billion dollars, 100 billion dollars in US energy imports, and 150 billion dollars in investments by ‘ROK companies.’
The 350 billion dollars alone corresponds to 84% of the ‘ROK’’s foreign reserves of 416 billion dollars, while the amount of foreign exchange actually available for use is only about 20 billion dollars. When the ‘ROK’ refused to comply with these impossible demands, the US authorities, on September 4, illegally and violently detained 316 ‘ROK’ workers at a ‘ROK’ battery factory in Georgia, using this as intimidation against the ‘ROK’ government. Amid the rising anger of the ‘ROK’ people and their growing anti-US sentiment, the Lee Jae-myung administration is now advocating the conclusion of an unlimited currency swap as a precondition for negotiations. It is proceeding with humiliating negotiations toward the United States, aiming to sign the agreement before the upcoming APEC meeting on the 30th of this month.
If the unlimited currency swap is concluded, the ‘ROK’ will ultimately lose its monetary sovereignty. Under the dollar system, the won (the national currency of the ‘ROK’) will become completely subordinated, and its value will collapse. On October 1, the colonial ‘ROK’ reached an agreement with the imperialist United States to “prohibit the artificial weakening of the won’s value.” Through this, the ‘ROK’ has been deprived of the right to conduct its own exchange-rate policy. Why is this currency swap being pursued? It is to practically hand over the 350 billion dollars that the United States is demanding. The conditions of the 350 billion dollars investment in the United States are that the investment targets are to be selected by the USA, and that profit distribution between the USA and the ‘ROK’ shall be divided 50 to 50 before the recovery of the principal, and 90 to 10 after the principal is recovered. There has never been such a brazen act of banditry. Whether the principal will ever be recovered is uncertain, and as seen with the additional 200 billion dollars already demanded, the demands of the United States are endless. The exchange rate of the ‘ROK’ has already surpassed the 1,400-won level, breaking through the psychological safety line. It is predicted to soar to 2,000 won upon the conclusion of the currency swap. In a word, the won will be reduced to mere scraps of paper. The ‘ROK’ now stands on the brink of a recurrence of the 1997 foreign exchange crisis, when it had to receive IMF bailout assistance.
US imperialism is not merely after ‘ROK’’s monetary sovereignty. Trump has blatantly revealed his intention to seize stakes in ‘ROK’’s manufacturing sector―a sinister plot to snatch up industry at fire-sale prices should the won collapse. Meanwhile, in tariff negotiations, the European Union’s 600 billion dollars investment in the USA belongs to private firms, and of Japan’s pledged 550 billion dollars, only 1–2% is actually invested. Some even estimate that Japan’s precondition for US investment hinges on ‘ROK’’s 350 billion dollars in cash flows to the USA. If it can smash ‘ROK’’s economy, roughly 6 billion dollars is meaningless to Japan. The United States is coercing the ‘ROK’ into astronomical investments in the USA―far exceeding its foreign exchange reserves―while in truth aiming to seize control over its monetary sovereignty and plunder its manufacturing. This is far from the end. Through subordinate allies―Europe and Japan, it is employing vicious methods of imperialist brigands to completely bring the colonial ‘ROK’ to heel, setting so-called “baselines” for the Third World in the process.
After tariffs and exchange rates comes the military. The “Miran Report,” which determines Trump’s second-term economic policy, seeks to offload the political and economic crisis of US imperialism―arising from the 37 trillion dollars national debt and the 1 trillion dollars in annual interest―onto its “allies,” structuring the process in stages of “tariffs,” “exchange rates,” and “defense.” This is being applied wholesale to colonial ‘ROK.’ Trump threatens the withdrawal of US forces from the ‘ROK’ while brazenly demanding a ninefold increase in stationing costs. In August, meeting Lee Jae-myung, he even spoke of claiming ownership of the Camp Humphreys US military base in the ’ROK’―the largest single overseas US military base. The problem lies in the colonial dependence of the ‘ROK’ government on the USA. President Lee Jae-myung speaks of so-called “independent national defense” and the return of wartime operational control, yet is reviewing a 25 billion dollars list of US-made weapons purchases through 2030. The so-called “government” of colonial ‘ROK’ has neither the will nor the capacity to remove the occupying US forces and realize genuine independent national defense.
We categorically oppose unlimited currency swap! Pursuing a currency swap is in itself the ultimate humiliation. Pro‑US vassals in colonial ‘ROK’ are moving to hand over even the last vestige of ‘ROK’ monetary sovereignty into the clutch of imperialist USA. The price of this treasonous sellout is endless plunder under Trump’s “madman tactics,” the insult of becoming not merely “ATM Korea” but a “global super‑doormat,” and the shame of colony. Cease all efforts to push for unlimited currency swaps at once, reject every negotiation, and answer “threats” of US troop withdrawal with the removal of US forces―respond from an independent, sovereign stance. Already more than 80% of the ‘ROK’ populace oppose concluding a currency swap, and the ‘ROK’ society is transforming into a “zone of anti‑US fervor.” Our people, together with the peoples of the world, will rise in a fight against US and imperialism, smash the US imperialist aggression and plundering schemes, and hasten a new era of independence and liberation.
