A war on the Korean Peninsula would be really bad for the global electronics business.
Leaving aside the significant humanitarian and geopolitical consequences of a war on the Korean Peninsula, such a conflagration would also catastrophically damage the global supply chain for the electronic gadgets we've come to rely on for work and play.
According to a report from the research firm iSuppli, a war in Korea would deal a major blow to components, such as NAND flash memory and DRAM, that are vital for manufacturing PCs, tablets and smartphones.
South Korea is home to many leading technology firms such as Samsung, LG and SK Hynix -- two of which (Samsung and Hynix) are headquartered in Seoul. Aside from being name brands, these firms hold significant market share in major product categories. Samsung and LG alone represent 30 percent of the worldwide market for cellphones and smartphones, iSuppli noted. Samsung is also the top TV maker worldwide.
Were a war to break out, we'd see massive supply chain disruptions, product shortages and sky-rocketing prices across the entire IT and consumer electronics industry.
While the research firm thinks it's unlikely that we'll see a war, it did warn "forward thinking tech companies" to begin planning for the worse.
Just in case.
(AP Photo)
