#free real estate. / open starters‚ kim.

[goldshadows]

" oh, honey. come here. " said just before she pulls them into a tight hug. both arms wrapped around them as if wanting to shield them from anything bad in the world. kim keeps them close for several moments, one of her hands rubbing up and down their back soothingly. " you're okay, sweetheart. you're gonna be okay. how about i make you a hot chocolate and we sit down together ? "

[newstfionline]

The Choco Pie dividend: South Korean firms are drooling at the prospect of business in the North

By Brian Murphy and Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post, June 17, 2018

SEOUL--At a glass-and-stone office complex in downtown Seoul, a team of corporate strategists is thinking about diplomacy, North Korea, and the power of marshmallow, yellow cake and chocolate.

At the same time, dozens of other companies across South Korea also are jockeying for any edge to jump into North Korea if Kim Jong Un’s outreach eventually opens investment in a country that needs everything from new roads to designer doorknobs.

But Orion Corp. has something the others do not: the original Choco Pie and its status as a treat so coveted in the North that it can be peddled on the black market for many times its price.

There is still no way to predict whether North Korea could get an investment rush from South Korea and other countries across the region. For starters, the Kim regime needs to make enough nuclear concessions to win a rollback of some U.N. sanctions.

That hasn’t dampened the optimism of South Korean executives, though. Companies of every stripe--construction, shipping, mining, hotel groups, automaker Hyundai and others--have started to weigh the potential windfalls and risks. Many industry officials see South Korean food companies as among the most likely to make the first possible forays, using common culture and tastes as calling cards.

“For South Korean companies, low wages and close proximity are definite plus factors, and, of course, the shared culture and language as well,” said Gloria Koo, associate director of the University of Southern California’s Korean Studies Institute.

Perhaps no company has a more ready fan base in the North than the South Korean makers of the original Choco Pie, a cake-and-marshmallow sandwich dipped in chocolate, somewhat like an American MoonPie. An executive at Orion, which introduced the Choco Pie to South Korea in the 1970s, said last month that its most-famous snack could be the advance guard in North Korea for the company’s full line of crackers, cookies and other munchies.

Choco Pies were a favored extra among North Korean workers at the now-suspended Kaesong industrial zone, a project that began operating in 2004 to allow a foothold in the North for scores of midsize South Korean companies. The North Korean workers stashed them instead of eating them. Choco Pies were so prevalent for sale or barter on the streets that North Korea reportedly banned their import to Kaesong in 2014.

Choco Pies became such a symbol of resistance that activist groups in South Korea sent them over the border tied to balloons, and the company gave a lifetime supply of Choco Pies to North Korean soldier Oh Chong-song, who was badly wounded by gunfire in his dash south across the demilitarized zone in November.

A recent North Korea investment forum in Seoul brought together about 600 corporate executives and economic researchers to hash over future opportunities. The list went on and on: roads, railways, ports, airports, the electrical grid, hotels, televisions and consumer goods of all kinds.

Real estate firms zeroed in on the untouched property in the DMZ. Some tourist companies brainstormed ideas about the North--all aware that even giant Hyundai was once burned by the North’s government.

In 1998, Hyundai opened a mountain resort for tourists at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang, just over the border. Hugely popular, it was closed in 2008 by the North after a sentry shot and killed a tourist. The entire development was confiscated by Pyongyang.

South Korea’s central bank estimates that the North Korean economy has expanded at a respectable 1.24 percent on average each year since Kim assumed power in 2011, gradually allowing a budding free enterprise system to emerge with small private shops and restaurants.

China, however, remains the big brother, having served as the North’s economic lifeline for decades. The Chinese city of Dandong is a busy gateway for Chinese exports and the hub for Beijing’s policies of creating special economic zones built on cheap North Korean labor.

This leaves South Korean businesses--even powerful global brands such as Hyundai and Samsung--asking for government help to catch up. Many executives express hope for a master plan by the government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in to handle potential investments into North Korea and, down the road, possible reunification.

“Sanctions remain in place, and unwinding sanctions can be a complex and contentious undertaking that, in the case of North Korea, will also require working through multilateral restrictions,” said Clara Gillispie, senior director of trade, economic and energy affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research’s Washington office.

“I do think that it makes sense for investors to be thinking about these risks at an early stage,” she added. “But even after a successful summit, we are still at an early stage.”

[goldshadows]

" i don't know how to use these apps. how the hell do i do this ?! do i like ? do i swipe ? do i put someone in my cart ? whatever happened to going to a bar and just meeting someone. "

[goldshadows]

[mom vc] absolutely fucking not

[goldshadows]

tags 7/?