Alaska in the Right Spot to Cash in on North Korea

International politics these past few months have been such a delightful tease as this week the dance between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump culminated in a face-to-face meeting complete with the appropriate friendly gestures and the establishment of decorum and expectations for how this relationship would continue.

Only Nixon could go to China and only Trump could get Kim to Singapore.

While I am happy to hear from the national news that the nuclear threat from North Korea (yeah, right, as if that was really ever anything our armed forces couldn’t handle) is going to be contained with a “'complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, my brain is more focused on what being frenemies with North Korea could mean for Alaska.

It’s no secret that the former “Rocketman” was using relatively ineffective arms development to gain international attention for his country. Yes, we could have kicked their butts pretty easily with our weapons, but that wasn’t the point for Kim. He knew an arms build-up on his part would get our attention. I suspect his end game wasn’t so much to be a real player in war games but to secure justification to open his nation to what the world has to offer.

After his formal education in Switzerland, he got a yummy taste of the western world. So, yes, his human rights record is horrid. Hopefully as the North Korean government allows its consumers more of the western world, it will also not just tolerate, but embrace treating humans with the dignity each deserves just because they are human. In the meantime and back to reality, Kim not only understands the notion of consumer consumption, he is a big participator himself.

It’s no secret there are many things from the “West” that he digs including our professional basketball league and Dennis Rodman. Not sure if Rodman is the best role model the United States could put forth to the masses of North Korea. Yet, the enormous amount of interest the hoops giant generates every time he visits the nation that up until recently has been nailed up tighter than a drum is more than a clue that the younger generation of North Koreans are well beyond just interested in western culture ... even if their government was saying even just three weeks ago that it really isn’t interested in economic aid from the western world.

By the way, that notion from the North Korean government is like the stuff farmers dry out and spread on the fields. Its fertilizing nature helps grow high-yielding crops and I suspect Alaska could easily have some North Korean harvest coming its way.

While our national media diligently reported on all of Kim’s military build-up, the reality is this young leader may not have been the nut job the West wanted to portray him as.

Until just recently, we in the West were not informed of his “Parallel Development” program in which his government focused on the production of “guns and butter” with yes, a heavy economic emphasis on weaponry, but also a new infusion of monies directed at meeting a growing demand for consumer products.

In May 2017, Kim unveiled his five-year domestic plan to support in-country production of a variety of consumer goods.

Turns out the North Korean supermarket might not be that different from ours: There are currently more than 120 varieties of ice cream available in urban shops.

Turns out North Korean demographics aren’t that different from our own.

According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, North Korea’s population is more than 25 million with the bulk of it (44 percent) being between the ages of 25 and 54. It is a budding nation with greater percentages in its younger ranks than its elders. More than 15 percent of its population is currently between ages 15 and 24; more than 20 percent is 14 and younger.

Our numbers: Well our overall population is much greater, but we do mirror what is happening by age bracket: Ages 25-54, 39.45 percent; ages 15-24, 13 percent and zero to 14, 19 percent.

Wow. Shocking. You mean our country might have something in common with the people of this nation we were busy demonizing.

I think it is time we – especially those of on the Last Frontier – start thinking in terms of how to partner with North Korea to meet its increasing consumer goods appetitive.

Hum ... let’s see, how could this happen?

Oh, I know, I know ...

Lemme give you, dear reader, a clue: Where did our governor just go?

Yep, you got it: China.

Turns out we and North Korea again have something in common.

As of March this year, we owe China approximately $1.18 trillion.

Yipes.

North Korea owes China about $2 billion.

Surely, China’s already well-developed trade relationship with North Korea is one we could tap in to as well.

China has been North Korea’s main source for consumer goods. According to the latest data released from Chinese customs for 2014, North Korea bought $1 billion in computers, phones and digital televisions from China.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: Of that $1 billion, $55 million was spent on LCD televisions. That is a 20-fold increase from 2011 when only $3 million worth of TVs were purchased by North Korea from China.

Fascinating: You mean maybe North Koreans are becoming couch potatoes as well?

Goodness, couldn’t Alaska intervene by showcasing our outdoor lifestyle?

Instead of allowing Kim to continue glorifying Rodman, how about we invite him here to go dog mushing with Dallas Seavey or cross country skiing with Kikkan Randall or even more fun, let’s set him up to go surfing in the Turnagain Arm?

Oh, yeah, that’s right. He only watches the sports.

Well, that’s okay. We can get him outfitted for that with binoculars, a high-power camera and a lounge chair for him to hang out along the Turnagain Arm.

Silly, I know, but so is his haircut.

Back to what matters: Dollars and sense.

Could Alaska fill some of the demand for consumer products that decades of isolation has created in North Korea?

How about our high quality seafood? How about the organic offerings from Bambino Baby Food in Spenard? How about those super uber cool tees and sweatshirts from Alaska Chicks? Hey, here’s an idea: Instead of Alaska Grown, how about offering Korea Grown?

Here’s another fun niche: North Koreans are consuming more alcohol than ever before.

In Pyongyang – North Korea’s capital and largest city – it premier brewery, Taedonggang, just added an eighth kind of beer to its product line. Its leading brew - Taedonggang Beer – is an American adjunct lager. I see opportunity to introduce North Koreans to the myriad of Alaska brews.

Plus, let’s send them our potatoes.

In 2014, North Korea imported $250 million worth of food products including 95,000 tons of cereal. So, since apparently they like breakfast foods, how about introducing hashbrowns?

Yep, as always, I am full of ideas but short on the “how-to” make it happen.

Just tossing these ideas of opportunities with North Korea out there for others much more capable than I to investigate the potential and put Alaska in the lead of offerings to our new “friends.”

Holy economic development, Batman ... might North Korea need some liquefied natural gas?

Reach Amy Armstrong via email at: asocialbutterfly@gci.net.