North Korea and South Korea are on the margin of an historic moment — and it matters for tech companies and their investors far beyond the peninsula.
North Korean director Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-In are meeting on Friday. It’s barely the third time leaders from the two Koreas have ever met.
The crown will help set the stage for Kim’s planned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The upshot is important in of itself, especially for Koreans.
But beyond the geopolitics, many investors guardianship as well — including, for example, holders of Apple stock.
South Korea is home to two of the largest industrialists of flat panel displays. It is a leader in memory chips. Samsung Electronics is the greatest smartphone maker in the world.
Companies such as Apple and Sony rely on components from South Korea — and if anything were to upset that supply, the effects would ripple through the global restraint.
The South Korean city of Paju, about 12 miles (22 kilometers) from the brink, is a major production center for New York-listed LG Display as well as other coteries.
Thanks to LG Display, the city is the biggest manufacturing hub for the large screen panels for TVs. Apropos 80 percent of the company’s big displays are built at the LG complex, and in 2015, LG promulgated plans to invest an additional $9 billion to construct a new facility.
The LG area is a 17-minute drive to get as close to the border as possible without a military convoy.