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J. Rogers: Address to World Summit 2022, Summit for Peace Assembly & One Million Rally
Written by Mr. Jim Rogers, Chairman, Beeland Enterprises
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Address to World Summit
February 11-13, 2022
I’d first like to thank the UPF for having us all here, and we hope—I hope anyway—that this is the last time we ever have a Korean peace conference.
First, I should point out to you that South Korea spends billions of dollars on bullets and guns. North Korea spends an even larger amount of its economy on bullets and guns. So can you imagine how much money we would have if we didn’t have to spend money on guns and bullets and tanks?
I hope the next time we meet we don’t have a peace conference. I hope we meet in the DMZ. I’ll bring the Rolling Stones, you bring Black Pink. North Koreans can bring whoever they want, and we’ll have a big, big, big party. And Julia Moon can bring her dancers and we’ll have a very, very good party when we meet in the DMZ next time, which is my hope. I hope we never do this again.
Some of you know that I spent three years driving around the world with my wife, 245,000 kilometers in 116 countries. As you can see, we got into the Guinness Book of World Records because I’m the first venture capitalist to drive around the world. So for me it was easy to get into the Guinness Book of Records. You can see we went to 116 countries [shows map].
I show you this because it gave me the perspective to realize that the Korean peninsula, Han Ban Do, could be, or will be the single most exciting place in the world once you open the DMZ. If you put together North Korea with cheap, disciplined, educated labor, lots of natural resources, and South Korea with huge amounts of capital and expertise, you have 80 million people on the Chinese border—it is going to be unbelievably exciting.
After we finish our party at the DMZ with the Rolling Stones and Black Pink and everybody else, we’re going to have a very, very vibrant and exciting economy here.
One of the things that my wife and I did when we finished after three years on the road, we stopped to rest a little while. One result of resting for a while is we now have a baby girl. I want you to know I never had a child before. I didn’t want children. I thought children were a terrible, terrible waste of time. I felt so sorry for my friends who had children, ruined their lives.
Well, I want you to know I was completely wrong. This little girl changed my life. It’s a lot of fun. So if any of you haven’t done it, and you’re the right age, I hope you will go home. You shouldn’t take a day off but go home for lunch one day. You will thank yourselves. It will be a lot of fun. My wife and I went home for lunch one day, and as you can see, we have another one [shows photo]. I took my own advice. I’m not just standing here talking. Everything I talk about, I do.
By the way, you can see it’s another daughter. I know that in Asia many of you think boys are better than girls. I want you to know that is completely wrong, totally wrong. Girls are much, much better than boys. So when you go home for lunch, be sure you have a girl and not a boy. You can do it for Korea.
Do you know there is a huge shortage of babies in South Korea? Especially a huge shortage of girl babies. So please do it for yourselves, do it for Korea and do it for the world.
Now speaking of Korea, I want to point out to some of you—because I’m afraid many of you don’t know—UPF hasn’t been sitting around. It spent 10 or 15 years working on all of this. Some of you may know that in North Korea they actually had an automobile company. Rev. Moon founded an automobile company in North Korea. So somebody has been doing something up there, this group especially. Also, some of you know there are prospects for a tunnel from Japan to Korea, started by Rev. Moon and his foundation and his church. So there is a possibility of change. The foundation has other prospects as well.
This is the automobile they were manufacturing in North Korea [shows photo]. I find that most people don’t know they manufactured cars in North Korea, but Rev. Moon started it. It can happen; change can happen. This tunnel [has been] started. They have drilled a few hundred meters of the tunnel from Japan to South Korea. Some day when the 38th parallel opens, we’re all going to get in our cars and drive from Tokyo to London. I want to be in the first car. I want my daughters and I to drive from Tokyo to London through the tunnel, and I hope all of you will go and stop at the former DMZ and have a big party. This all can happen, and it can be big change for the world.
Unfortunately, we cannot drive to London as long as the DMZ is there, so the tunnel clearly cannot be built while the DMZ is there. It’s a long way from Tokyo to London, but it can happen. When we open up the 38th parallel, you’re also going to find that Korea can become a transportation hub again. You know that the railroad on the east coast, the railroad on the west coast are not in use now, but they are both being rebuilt. Once Korea opens the 38th parallel, then Korea can join into the One Belt/One Road rail system, as well as the Russian rail system, the Trans-Siberian railroad. It can become a great transportation hub again. It used to be, but of course that all disappeared when they closed the 38th parallel because of the war.
Let’s finish all of that. Let’s make Korea wildly prosperous again. It can happen. It should happen. You can see the South Korean economy has been prosperous for a long time, and it can be even more prosperous once we open the 38th parallel. Korea’s currency has been a stable currency for a long time, in contrast to many countries. South Korea has been doing well; it can be doing even better, and it can be the most exciting place in the world.
The negative, of course, is that South Korea has built up huge debt in this time. It has a prosperous economy but has built up a lot of debt. Now I’m an American, so when I’m talking about debt, I will tell you that America is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. I don’t particularly think that debt is a good thing. I know in my country my children are going to have a huge problem with all this debt.
Well, South Korea has a problem too. That is another reason to open the DMZ. North Korea doesn’t have any debt. Nobody will lend money to the Kims, so they don’t have any debt. So when you have a unified country, South Korea has the debt but North Korea doesn’t have debt, so the whole situation will be much, much better.
The population has been growing. I hope that continues. Part of the problem, of course, is South Korea. Many of you have been marrying foreigners because of the shortage of girls. There’s no shortage of girls in North Korea. So opening the parallel will also help solve some of the social problems in South Korea. You don’t have to worry about getting foreign women anymore. You can marry Korean women.
You know whenever there is tension, when there’s about to be a war, or when there are problems in the economy, people don’t like to have babies. When we open the DMZ and have our party, you’ll have plenty of females. You can have babies again, and South Korea and the Korean peninsula can be an extremely exciting place. You’ll have more girls once the war prospect ends and the economy is revived.
I hope that you will open the 38th parallel soon. I hope our next meeting is not a peace conference. I hope it’s a big party at the DMZ.
Thank you.
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