U.S. demands South Korea pay $350 Billion extortion

Progressive Party Holds Unyielding Sit-In at U.S. Embassy Since September 23

By Simone Chun a U.S.-based researcher on U.S.-Korea relations, Board member of the Korea Policy Institute, and manager of Korea Update (KoreaUpdate@simonechun)

“I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact. I did not hesitate to let it be known of me that the white man who expected to succeed in whipping me must also succeed in killing me.” Frederick Douglass

Yes, the person who bullies and whips you like that can kill you. Then it would be too late—you would be a corpse. That was my thought last week when I read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave with my student. Some struggles in life are literally matters of life and death: pure survival. The same can be true for a nation. A clear case in point is Trump’s latest “whipping” of Korea—tariff bullying against the country.

What the Trump team is doing—weaponizing economic power for imperial ends against Korea—amounts to an embargo and a sanction regime in all but name. It threatens Korea’s very survival. This latest demand has nothing to do with trade or tariffs; it is a naked act of economic plunder aimed squarely at Korea. In this sense, Washington’s “whipping” can succeed in threatening the nation itself.

Trump is insisting that Seoul pay $350 billion “up front.” That figure equals roughly 74 percent of Korea’s annual government budget and exceeds the nation’s total global foreign direct investment over the past five years. Worse, Washington reportedly expects 90 percent of the profits in return—terms that anyone in Seoul can see are untenable.

Handing over such a sum within 45 days would be economic suicide. Trump’s first “capital call” of $350 billion already threatens to gut the nation’s finances. Meeting it would require Korea to ship out 84 percent of its $410 billion in foreign reserves almost overnight, inviting a catastrophic foreign-exchange crisis. And it will not end there: demands disclosed so far already total over $685 billion.

This is precisely how the 1997 IMF crisis began—a sudden shortage of foreign currency drove the won [currency] into freefall, doubling the exchange rate from ₩1,400 per U.S. dollar to nearly twice that level. A repeat would plunge Korean citizens and businesses alike into an economic hellscape. Koreans still carry trauma from the 1997 IMF crisis. Many never fully recovered—bankrupt businesses, young people who grew up in households ravaged by layoffs and debt were pushed into low-wage labor, while household debts soared dangerously. Then came Yoon Suk-yeol, who further weakened Korea’s economy. Koreans barely rescued the sinking nation through the Revolution of Light and elected Lee Jae-myung.

Despite this pressure, the Lee administration is resisting quietly. President Lee Jae-myung warned in a September 22 Reuters interview that the nation could face a crisis rivaling 1997 if it bows to Washington’s demands. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok has stated that Korean investment projects in the U.S. will remain frozen until basic issues—such as visa access—are resolved. South Korea’s own National Security Advisor has said the country cannot possibly meet such a demand at once.

The vigil continues around the clock. The South Koreans are the most determined activists I've ever witnessed. (Bruce)

The National Assembly is also pushing back. A resolution opposing the unilateral U.S. investment demand has drawn swift, broad support. Sixty-five lawmakers—including members of the ruling Democratic Party, the Progressive Party, the Rebuilding Korea Party, and the Basic Income Party—have co-sponsored a motion urging Washington to withdraw its $350 billion ultimatum. Progressive legislator Yoon Jong-oh initiated the proposal, and the Progressive Party has maintained a sit-in outside the U.S. Embassy since September 23.

President Lee now faces the most brutal pressure Washington has ever directed at a newly elected Korean leader. At this moment, the nation must speak with one voice to resist the Trump administration’s strong-arm tactics.

That economies larger than Korea’s—Japan and the European Union—have capitulated, while Korea under President Lee is quietly resisting and posing a direct challenge to Trump, is unacceptable to Washington—that is the real problem.

I believe that history is made by the small and the seemingly powerless. Koreans must assume that role now. The country—and the world—are watching. Washington’s intensified coercion should empower Koreans to stand up against the United States and chart an independent path. President Lee must trust the people and refuse this exploitative U.S. demand outright. President Lee Jae-myung reportedly told the U.S. Secretary of Commerce that Korea will not sign a “slave contract.” Korea’s quiet resistance deserves global solidarity to escape from “a den of hungry lions.”