Jim Rogers is all in with North Korea

Legendary investor Jim Rogers gave an interesting interview, which strongly promotes investment to North Korea, to the Chosun Ilbo. Ye Olde Chosun invented a new catchphrase for new year, unification is the future,  and began to publish a series of interviews with world-famous thinkers on reunification and this interview is the second of the series. The first one was with Habermas.

I guessed Chosun probably published the interview also in English but surprisingly it didn’t (yet). So I translated the meat (in my purview) of the story:

I think it [reunification] would be within 5 years. […] it will be far earlier than South Korea expects.

 

North Korea has cheap, skilled labor and natural resources. More to the point, it will have over-a-billion populated China as a neighbor after reunification. China is heavily investing in the northern side of North Korea and Russia is promoting a railway project which connects Rajin port to Siberia. […] The Korean peninsula will become the center of distribution and transportation in North East Asia.

 

When East and West Germany united, Russia and Poland were faltering. Russian didn’t build a express railway in East Germany as it currently are doing in North Korea. They were struggling to leave East Germany. […] In Korea, it is different. South Korea don’t have to provide so much as West Germany did. Russia and China are already investing in North Korea.

 

[Answering to what still-divided South Korea would face in a decade,] The population structure of South Korea is becoming like Japan—no women, no youngsters, only old men. A strength to support senior welfare would be deflated in a decade.

 

If possible, I’d like to invest all my money to North Korea. […] The point is, in order to see North Korea changes its mind, we have to keep investing in it.

Ah, I almost missed this capitalist gem:

[The most promising business] would be mining and agriculture. They will get the spotlight as a new growth engine business right after the unification. Manufacturing is also promising. Above all, there is no labor union so we don’t have to worry about it for a long time after the unification.