Peace for Korea?

April 20, 2018
 Willis Sparks

South Korea’s President Moon will meet North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim next Friday at the southern side of the demilitarized zone between the two countries, where they’re expected to discuss an official end to the Korean War. (The 1953 armistice was essentially a ceasefire; the two countries remain technically at war.) President Trump says, “they have my blessing on that” and he revealed that he had sent CIA Director (and Secretary of State-designate) Mike Pompeo to North Korea for secret talks with Kim over Easter weekend.

First, the questions:

  • Would a “peace agreement” persuade South Korea to ask the US to withdraw its 28,500 troops from the peninsula or disarm them for deployment solely as “peacekeepers?” Would Trump agree to that?

  • Would an agreement between Moon and Kim eliminate the demilitarized zone?

  • Would Kim agree to let North Koreans watch all the South Korean TV shows they want? Allow all North Koreans to visit South Korea? Allow South Koreans to travel anywhere they want in North Korea?

  • If the answer to all these questions is “of course not, are you high?” what difference would a peace agreement make? Peace is better than war, but what would prevent Kim from tearing up such a deal anytime he wants? It’s not like North Korea has never cheated before.

Now, the suspicions:

  • Kim knows an “end to the war” agreement with Moon won’t move a single US troop or a single landmine.

  • He also knows his peace proposal and the US refusal to move troops can drive a wedge between the US and South Korea and allow him to cast Donald Trump as the #1 obstacle to peace. He risks nothing by playing this game.

  • If his meeting with Trump ever takes place, Kim might offer to “denuclearize” in exchange for a US troop withdrawal because, even without nuclear weapons, he knows he has enough conventional military power to kill millions of South Koreans. (South Korean officials say Kim is willing to talk without such preconditions.) And he knows this threat would be more credible without thousands of American soldiers standing in the way.

The bottom line: Trump talks about this meeting as if Kim is coming to surrender. North Korea’s nuclear weapons, and the threat they pose the US mainland, will always be Kim’s best defense against US invasion. He won’t give them away unless he believes he no longer needs them. What can Trump offer that could persuade him of that?

No peace treaty, no pledge from Trump, not even a promise from China can offer Kim the peace of mind his weapons provide. Everything else is a piece of paper.

Facebook’s High-risk, High-reward Crypto-gambit

Facebook unveiled plans for a new cryptocurrency and payment system on Tuesday. It's called the Libra, and it's not-so-modest goal is to "reinvent money," and "transform the global economy" so that "people everywhere can live better lives." Ambitious much, Zuck?

This is a huge political gamble, but the rewards could be enormous. Here's a quick look at the tradeoffs:

The risks: Facebook is asking its 2.5 billion users — and government regulators — to entrust it with something that's vitally important to people everywhere and a power that governments jealously protect: access to money. And it's doing so at a time when trust in Facebook and other big Silicon Valley companies is at a low ebb.

Whether it's a concern that Big Tech has become too powerful or that it's not doing enough to protect privacy or put a stop to fake news, it's a heck of a time to launch a new techno-utopian project that could give Silicon Valley much more power — including the ability to track not just what people say they like but how they spend their money.

Mark Zuckerberg understands this — the Facebook founder is setting up Libra as a Swiss-based non-profit that will be governed by an "association" of 28 tech and financial companies and non-profits of which Facebook is just one member. He's also promising that Facebook will not mix personal data with payment information, and to cooperate with regulators.

But this will always be Zuckerberg's baby, and by launching Libra, he's painting a big new political bullseye on his own back.

The payoff: If Libra can survive the inevitable political and regulatory storm (and convince its billions of users that they can trust the underlying technology and financial stability of the new cryptocurrency) the upside could be enormous.

How enormous? The Libra website claims that more than 30 percent of the world's population — about 1.7 billion people — currently lack access to traditional bank accounts. Many more pay steep fees to transfer money using traditional payment services. Libra, by contrast, promises access to anyone in the world with a simple smartphone — and to make payments as inexpensive as sending a text message.

Plug those capabilities into a social network whose user base is roughly double the population of the biggest country in the world, and the results could be revolutionary — not just for billions of people who would gain new access to financial resources, but for Facebook's business model, and for central banks and governments that have traditionally sought to control the flow of money through their economies.

That would be a techno-utopian dream come true, but it's a power that governments won't willingly surrender.

All Up in Russia’s Grid

If Willis's story on Tuesday about Argentina being plunged into darkness after a nationwide power failure didn't get you packing a flashlight and checking that your car has a full tank of gas, this one should. Over the weekend, the New York Times said anonymous US officials had revealed a US campaign to plant "potentially crippling malware" inside Russia's power grid "at a depth and with an aggressiveness that had never been tried before."

Quick thoughts:

This is a big provocation. It's the cyber equivalent of mining a harbor — an aggressive move that falls short of actual conflict but sends an unmistakable message: mess with us, and we'll mess you up.

The leak was probably intentional. The campaign fits with the new US strategy, launched under the Trump administration, of trying to deter cyber adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran from hacking its critical infrastructure. By disclosing the US campaign, US officials are effectively telling Russia (and by extension China and Iran), that they've got a loaded gun cocked and pointed at their economies.

That's dangerous. People — and governments — may not always behave rationally when a gun is pointed at their heads. Russia might be even more inclined to lash out. And unlike more conventional forms of conflict, cyber isn't a domain where the US can be sure it has an overwhelming advantage if push comes to shove.

It gets worse. The Times said US cyber officials described a "broad hesitation" to go into details of cyber operations against Russia with President Donald Trump because they feared he might cancel it or tell other governments about it. Among other things that are disturbing about this story, a lack of communication between the President and US cyber warriors could send mixed signals that further embolden US adversaries.

The Graphic Truth: Who’s Hacking Whom?

It's no secret that cyberattacks are becoming more commonplace. But where do most of them originate and what countries do they target most? The graphic above shows the most significant offenders and victims since 2006. Hackers in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea account for three-quarters of all major attacks. Nearly a fifth of attacks, meanwhile, have targeted institutions or companies in the United States.

(At least that we know of: this chart highlights known attacks on government agencies, tech companies, and other operations that caused more than $1 million in economic damage. But many cyberattacks are never disclosed, and some countries are more transparent than others, so consider this a cross-section of a much bigger — and more disturbing — picture.)

What We Are Watching: China’s National Outrage Machine

China's outrage against Swiss bankers – Paul Donovan, an economist at UBS and a former colleague of your Wednesday Signal author, ended up in hot water last week after he wrote that an outbreak of swine fever that had pushed up pork prices in China, "matters if you are a Chinese pig. It matters if you like eating pork in China. It does not really matter to the rest of the world." The Swiss bank put Donovan on leave after a nationalist tabloid picked up the story, unleashing a torrent of invective from angry Chinese citizens, industry groups, and clients. Although we're a bit puzzled at the intensity of the outrage, we're following this story closely. The anger of 1.4 billion people is a powerful thing, and if the US-China standoff over tech and trade continues to escalate, US firms could soon find themselves on the receiving end.

What we are ignoring: Trump on ICE

Trump's Deportation Threats – As Donald Trump revved up his official reelection campaign in Florida on Tuesday, he took to Twitter to vow mass deportations of "millions of illegal aliens" starting next week. We are ignoring this for two reasons: First, it looks more like a campaign trail stunt than a well-thought-out plan — the scale of deportations Trump envisions would require massive logistical coordination, and it's not clear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can deliver it — even if the federal force got help from local police, who may be reluctant to participate in mass arrests in their communities. Second, while this type of rhetoric may play directly to Trump's base, images of crying children torn from their parents will galvanize the president's opponents — and, in particular, the suburban women crucial to his 2016 victory. We're not ignoring the pain and trauma that mass deportations would inflict on immigrant communities if Trump delivers on this threat. We're ignoring a boast that's likely to prove a political bust.

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