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J. Rogers: Address to World Summit 2022, Plenary Session 1
Written by Mr. Jim Rogers, Chairman, Beeland Enterprises
Friday, February 11, 2022
Address to World Summit
February 11-13, 2022
First of all, I would like to thank UPF for inviting me and everybody else and all of the distinguished guests who are here because in my view, probably the next most exciting country in the world is going to be Korea, when we open the 38th parallel. There is going to be enormous change and excitement here.
Some of you know in my previous life I spent three years driving around the world. I drove to 116 countries, 245,000 kilometers in three years on the road. I can assure you that gave me the perspective to see that when we open the 38th parallel, this peninsula, this country is going to be the single most exciting place in the world.
As you can see [on the map], I drove 245,000 kilometers. When we got home—I went with my wife—we were a little tired, as you can imagine. So we stopped to rest for a while. One result of resting for a while is we now have a baby girl.
You may wonder why I show this. First of all, I want to tell you that for many decades I never wanted a child. I thought children were a terrible waste of time and money, energy. I felt so sorry for my friends who had children—you’ve wasted your life; how could you do it? I was wrong. I was completely, 100% wrong about children.
This little girl came along and changed my life, so I want you to know that if there’s anybody here or anybody in the world who hasn’t done it and you’re the right age, please have a child. You will find out it is so much fun. It will change your life for the better if you do so. Take a day off, go home for lunch. Have a lunch hour one day.
I went home for lunch one day with my wife and we now have another child. I took my own advice. I don’t just tell you this stuff. I act on my advice; I don’t just talk about it. And by the way, you can see we have another daughter. I know that in Asia, including Korea, you think boys are better than girls. I want you to know that is wrong, 100% wrong. Girls are much, much, much better than boys. So when you go home for lunch, be sure to have a girl. Don’t have a boy. You’ll be much happier with a girl.
And please do it for Korea as well. Korea now has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, as you know. Whenever there is a prospect of war or economic problems, people don’t have babies. But once we open the 38th parallel, there will be new excitement, new vibrancy, and you will have many, many more babies. In South Korea you’ve been marrying foreigners. You don’t need to do that. There are lots of girls in North Korea. You can marry a Korean girl once again and have Korean girls.
The Universal Peace Federation has done some remarkable things, and I want to show this—certainly at one time I did not know how much you have done up there—one of the only car companies in North Korea was founded by Rev. Moon and the UPF.
There is a possibility of a tunnel from Japan to Korea—that’s not me doing that. That’s the UPF. [There is] the possibility for enormous change on the Korean peninsula and in this part of the world if somebody will just sit down and do something instead of talking about it. UPF has other initiatives aimed at doing business with North Korea. As I’m sure you know, people who are doing business together are probably not going to be shooting each other; they’re probably going to be drinking beer and having fun and making money. So this can happen and will happen.
I doubt if many of you know that the North Koreans even have a car company. North Korea was actually producing cars because of the Universal Peace Federation. So change can take place. Enormous change can take place. I’m sure Mr. Kim’s grandfather hated it that there was a car company in North Korea.
The Universal Peace Federation has also begun a tunnel from Korea to Japan, down by Pusan. That would [bring about] enormous changes in this part of the world. Can you imagine one day you can get in your car in Tokyo and drive to London? I want to be the first one. I want to be in the first car. It cannot happen now because of the 38th parallel. But once the 38th parallel opens, this tunnel will occur and then there will be enormous increases in commerce, travel, tourism, everything in the Korean Peninsula. As you can see, the peninsula is in a very strategic place in the world, with huge, important neighbors all around it.
I want to show you also not just the Korean Peninsula, which will be tremendously exciting when the 38th parallel is open. Some of you know about the One-Belt/One-Road project in China. It’s perhaps the most important development in the 21st century so far. Five hundred years ago the Spanish and the Portuguese started sailing around the world and changed geography. Two hundred years ago the railroad came along and changed geography. Some of you have heard of the city of Chicago in the United States. Chicago is there because of the railroads.
The Chinese are now in the process of changing geography, but Korea will hook into the One Belt, One Road project and the trans-Siberian railroad. So the Korean peninsula, once it’s open, will become an extremely exciting and important transportation hub. Many changes will take place in Korea once this happens. Remember, we’re all going to get in our car in Tokyo and drive to London
How does this affect South Korea? We look forward to the possibilities of peace in this part of the world. Once it happens, it’s going to be even more prosperous and exciting. The Korean currency, the won, has been a stable currency, in sharp contrast to many currencies in the world, because of the stable, growing economy. But not all good stories have a good end. Korea has also built up huge amounts of debt in the last 20, 30 years. Korea is now one of the most indebted nations in the world. By the way, the largest debtor nation in the history of the world is the United States. So don’t think I’m saying bad things about Korea. I don’t like that the United States is a huge debtor nation, but we have to face facts. Korea has also been building a huge amount of debt.
So once we open the 38th parallel, it’s going to help enormously because there will be a new frontier. Whenever there’s a new frontier, there’s a lot of excitement and prosperity. But North Korea doesn’t have much debt. The peninsula as a whole will be in better shape. Nobody will lend money to the Kims. I wouldn’t lend money to the Kims; I doubt anyone else would either. But the overall peninsular debt will be much moderated by opening up.
The Korean population has been growing for a long time, but as you can see, the birth rate has collapsed in the last [few] years, so we need to open up the peninsula for many reasons. Once we open the peninsula—I’m not going to use the word unification because it scares a lot of people in the North and in the South—but most people are in favor of this. Once it opens up, you’re going to have a new excitement, a new prosperity.
You’ll have a country of 80 million people on the Chinese border. Most people would be in favor of this, a new prosperity, a new excitement. The North Koreans spend staggering amounts of money on defense. The South Koreans spend staggering amounts of money on defense. Can you imagine what the South could do if it didn’t spend billions on defense? What the North could do if it didn’t spend billions on defense? We could have a big, big party. Julia Moon could come and dance. We could have a great party. Julia could bring her dancers and we could have a wonderful, wonderful time because we would have so much money that we were not spending on guns and bullets and killing each other. Everybody alive on the Korean peninsula today spends his or her whole life worrying about getting killed; for the last 80 years [they were] worried about getting killed. Let’s stop worrying about that. Let’s start putting our energy and all that money we will save into a new prosperity that will change Korea, will change Asia, will change the world.
One other thing I have to show you before I stop. In South Korea there’s been a huge gender imbalance. They like boys instead of girls and there’s a shortage of girls. In North Korea there are plenty of girls. So we have plenty of girls. So the South Koreans can stop marrying foreigners and have Koreans again and the Korean peninsula will be the most exciting place in the world.
Thank you.
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