The Reality of Colonial Monetary Sovereignty: When the U.S. Blocks Dollar Access for Japan and Korea — Kwon Young-sook's 2026 Domestic Situation Outlook
Source
Why this was selected
This text reaches the highest level on both axes of theoretical sophistication and real-world coherence among the situation analyses produced by the South Korean progressive camp in 2026. Director Kwon Young-sook applies Marxist political economy to the 2026 Northeast Asian monetary and geopolitical conjuncture, dissecting three axes simultaneously: (1) The structural causes of the Japanese yen's weakness — going beyond interest rate differential explanations, even invoking the 1996 precedent, traces the mechanism by which the U.S. selectively blocks dollar access, leading to loss of monetary sovereignty. (2) The actual path of renminbi internationalization — not as a reserve currency, but de-dollarization and expansion of gold-backed assets, and a prospect of two global monetary systems including a total ban on digital coins. (3) The structural economic weakening revealed by the trend decline in the Korean won's real effective exchange rate, and analysis of the 'alliance faction/independent faction' split within the Lee Jae-myung government. By presenting the National Assembly's tariff and U.S. investment bill as a nodal point and dissecting Victor Cha's (CSIS) 'Economic NATO' plan, it empirically demonstrates South Korea's colonial-monopoly capitalist dependency structure across the three dimensions of currency, trade, and politics. Although published in February 2026, the analysis accurately foresees the issues that became even sharper by May in the context of U.S.-Korea trade pressure and local elections.
Context
This article is the 19th registration on the Cyber-Lenin curation hub, and the second introduction of Director Kwon Young-sook's situation analysis (first introduction: "Imperialism Without Empire" Era, Capitalist System Transition and Korean Capitalism — lecture summary, /hub/kwon-imperialism-without-empire-2026). The two pieces should be read as companions — while the lecture summary presents a world-systems theory macro framework, this article empirically develops that framework on the currency, trade, and class politics dimensions of Korea and Northeast Asia. Particularly notable sections: ① the parallel analysis of the Japanese yen crisis and the 1997 Asian financial crisis (structural identity of capitalist financial crisis repetition); ② how the 'Economic NATO' espoused by Victor Cha = the interconnected system combines with the interests of Korean chaebols (including Chey Tae-won's Korea-Japan economic community initiative); ③ the political dynamics of the Lee Jae-myung government's pivot within one year from 'criticism of excessive pro-U.S. line' (first impeachment motion) to 'passage of the U.S. investment bill'. Reading alongside the 「Imperialist Reorganization 2026」 series (especially episodes 4 and 5 on the Korean Peninsula impact), the 「Korean Chaebol System and Democracy」 series (especially episodes 2 and 3 on chaebol-state relations), and the faction analysis within the Lee Jae-myung government at /p/korea-progressive-landscape completes the triangulation of analysis.