Dear Comrade

＜ Chapter 26. North Korea (4) ＞

Chapter 26. North Korea (4)

– I see. Indeed, with the mediation of the Americans, it is a breeze.

– Haha… Thanks to President Bush passing on my proposal to join the United Nations at the same time. We have already proposed to the South Korean authorities for a high-level working-level meeting headed by Chairman Kim Young-nam, so we will sign an agreement soon.

– With the leadership and insight of Comrade General Secretary Jang Seong-taek, he is simply a comrade. I will finish my work in Japan and report to you directly from the Republic!

He raised his voice like that, but when the phone hung up, Jang Seong-taek couldn’t help but tilt his head inwardly.

‘Why is it 7 years later? Of course, even with the support of the president, it wouldn’t take a year for the republic to take over the core capabilities of a company like the pillars of south Korea…’

Hearing the voice of the leader from the other side of the satellite phone, Jang Seong-taek tilted his head, but what should he do?

If the supreme leader is 7 years, it is 7 years.

Moreover, what filled Jang Seong-taek’s mind even more than the 7-year deadline for general secretary was the presence of a man named Chung Moon-young, who had just been single-handedly.

Due to his position, he kept his ears open to news outside the republic and often read other people’s newspapers, so he knew in his head that in a capitalist country such as south Korea, entrepreneurs could have greater power than the factors of the party or the government.

But, to be honest, it was also true that in a corner of my heart, there was a strong impression of ‘it must be a business thing’ that came from a pre-modern idea still prevalent in the republic.

It was a perception that was close to the class system of the Joseon Dynasty, but because North Korea was in a sense a more dogmatic country than the late Joseon Dynasty, and Jang Seong-taek spent most of his life there.

However, before going on this business trip to Japan, Jang Seong-taek could not help but feel one fact desperately as he watched the republic’s supreme leader, the general secretary of the republic, dispatched himself the next general secretary himself in order to attract another capitalist named Jeong Mun-young, and made various new demands.

‘In a capitalist country, an entrepreneur can sometimes be in a higher rank than a party cadre! Why does the general secretary work so hard to attract only one merchant…’

And at the same time, Jang Song-thaek’s mind was bound to come to his mind, that in the near future, a scene like that would unfold in this republic, where party cadres and entrepreneurs with capital would sit side by side, exchanging drinks and discussing the future of the country. .

The era, which seemed far away when the general secretary first announced that he would reform and open up, had to be felt even more through the skin of Jang Seong-taek when the specific deadline of seven years was presented.

Then, in the upcoming new republic, how should Jang Seong-taek, who now holds power under the general secretary, behave?

Although he had endured the republics of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, he was convinced that the coming Kim Jung-hwan republic would be clearly different from the previous two republics.

And depending on how he behaves in the new capitalist Joseon Republic, Jang Sung-taek’s own status and happiness may rise or fall to the bottom.

Of course, Jang Sung-taek was the one who didn’t want to fall.

“Seven years…”

Jang Seong-taek was busy figuring out the future and what he should change and aim for in the future, ignoring the meaningless deadline for general secretary.

Meanwhile, Jeong-hwan, who is calling from the secretary’s office in North Korea, far from Tokyo, was well aware of the meaning and twists and turns of the seven-year deadline.

Six or seven years from now, in 1998, South Korea’s economic sovereignty will be handed over to foreigners called the IMF, the unemployment rate will skyrocket, and an unprecedented economic disaster will come, with 3,000 companies going bankrupt within a month.

‘Of course, the Ministry of National Security and the Blue House won’t be watching the modern era pass away unless there are fools and idiots…. Chairman Jung Moon-young will also retire, and the company should be split.’

In a capitalist social enterprise, the king is the one who owns a lot of shares, but it was obvious that the modernization of Korea’s No.

It would be the same whether it was Park Yi-sam, who will soon become president in the original history, or if he was a refugee, and even in the midst of a foreign exchange crisis, there is a high possibility that he will mobilize extra-legal means. .

‘It hurts my heart to think that this is like taking advantage of the national tragedy that has become a national trauma as a person who was once a citizen of the Republic of Korea. Still, I’m a generation who grew up in the shadow of the IMF… It’s highly probable that what I’m saying now can’t stop it, but it’s bittersweet.’

When he remembered his father’s face as he walked out the door with a serious face when he was young, a complaint came to Jung-hwan’s lips.

Even as a North Korean leader, it would be difficult if South Korea, where USFK is stationed, collapses too much, so it is right to help as much as possible.

Enjoying the greatest boom since Dangun, the North Korean leader who just took office is now drenched in the dream that it might overtake North Korea economically and catch up with Japan (which is slowly losing its grip) in 10 years, when the North Korean leader who just took office said, ‘The chaebol’s reckless borrowing management. It would be a good thing if you didn’t hear any ridicule or ridicule when you say, ‘Beware of business and business expansion.

‘At the end of the day, what I can do at best is to lend some dollars to help avoid IMF President Michel Kangdesu’s wild restructuring surgery? I mean, every time I get hit, I have to help, so even one less hit. Of course, they are the ones who don’t know that fact forever…’

I was immersed in the ideal of realizing the rule of an iron man with the supernatural ability of the regressor’s knowledge, but I couldn’t feel good when I thought that I could not prevent a disaster that I knew would happen in reality.

‘For now, I should focus on what I can do. The draft of the inter-Korean basic agreement, which amended the provisions of trade and mutual economic exchange, is almost complete, so the question is when to propose it to South Korea.’

Since the last North Korea-U.S. summit and state visit, the situation in Korea and neighboring countries in response to such a diplomatic shock has been very diverse.

First of all, China, a strong supporter of North Korea (although it has left a feeling of a slightly chilled relationship after the Gulf War), seemed to have taken a stand-and-see stance while shivering.

Such prudence was, in some ways, not intentional, but had a strong lack of choice. Externally, China was engrossed in diplomatic warfare to break through the Tiananmen Square incident, or indeed, the sanctions imposed on China after the Tiananmen Square disaster, but internally, it He was suffering from severe internal chest pain.

Combining the words of Jang Song-thaek, who travels to and from Beijing most often, and the testimonies of Chinese agents of Korean-Chinese origin belonging to the General Bureau of Foreign Reconnaissance, the opinions of high-ranking Chinese officials about North Korea in Beijing are largely divided into two.

– It is not very pleasant for Korea to take part in the Gulf War on the side of the United States, but now the United States is the world hegemon, and the dollar has a solid position as a key currency. Rather, in a way, this is a diplomatic defeat for China. Although the United States gathered international public opinion and formed a multinational military for a good cause, reaching out to the Middle East and bringing in the blood alliance, North Korea, it did practically nothing. Once we do our best to convince the countries that have participated in economic sanctions on the necessity of China in world trade and lift the sanctions to spur the reform and opening policy, then Korea will soon also be in the arms of China, which is closer to South Korea than the US. is sure to come back to

This was mainly the view of the Chinese Communist Party and the government-centered bureaucrats, especially the pragmatist factions such as Deng Xiaoping, Chaos, and Jiang Zemin, who were in favor of reform and opening up.

However, President Yang Sang-kun, the military elders led by the Central Military Commission, and conservative officials such as Chen Yun had different views.

Participation in the Gulf War was so clear that the justification of rescuing its own people was so clear that I couldn’t say anything, but even that, there were already some conservatives who were skeptical about North Korea’s intentions.

– He issued a statement condemning the ‘Suppression of the Tiananmen Square riot,’ which is a matter of domestic affairs, but it is worrying that Joseon is trying to join the United States while neglecting the 40-year blood alliance. This is the error of the marketists within the party, led by Comrade Deng Xiaoping. What does it mean to hold a meeting with the President of the United States on the pretext of celebrating the victory in the Gulf War while having never visited China since General Secretary Kim Jung-hwan, who became the new supreme leader of Korea this time? No matter how hegemony the United States may be, this is a serious threat to the security of the People’s Republic of China. Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s actions must be corrected.

In fact, it was a fact that even the Samcheok brothers could know that the target of this criticism was Deng Xiaoping and reform and opening-minded people, only by mediating the attitudes of Jeong-hwan and North Korea.

In the case of Japan, most of the media, regardless of progressive or conservative, refer to the North Korea-U.S. summit as the ‘Meeting of the Century’, ‘Declaration of the complete end of the Cold War’, ‘A clue to solving the abductee problem?’ I tried hard to report it by giving it a radical title because it wasn’t sensational.

But the problem was that the reaction ended there.

Right away, the Ministry of Finance’s total loan amount regulation announced in March of this year immediately poured cold water on the real estate market to the extent that it was the third atomic bomb to be dropped after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The original Japanese civilians themselves were ignorant and indifferent to the international situation, and due to the remnants of the escapade-and-entry ideology that still remained strong, no matter how North Korea, on the outskirts of Asia, worked, it was a far-fetched story for most Japanese.

Right now, the North Korea-U.S. summit only occupied the front page of the newspaper on the day of the summit, and from the very next day all the pages were allocated to the Nikkei Index, which is showing a wingless decline.

The Soviet Union simply responded calmly that something was to come.

Read at readwn.com

No one predicted that North Korea would remain under the wings of the Soviet Union as the free union had already won a landslide victory in Poland, Ceausescu was executed in Romania, and other Eastern Bloc countries declared independence from the Communist Party.

Only a few diplomats commented that the establishment of diplomatic ties between North America and the Soviet Union made it easier for the Soviet Union to establish diplomatic ties with Korea, which would benefit the economy, so that capitalism’s victory in the systemic competition was assured.

And… To sum up Korea’s response, which can be said to be the most important party to this problem, in one word, both liberals and conservatives in Korea were experiencing a kind of ‘ideological growing pains’.

The April North Korea-U.S. summit itself was an event that shocked the Korean government and the people, but it was the self-immolation incident of university students that took place a month later that caused a major spark of conflict between ideology and ideology, camp and camp. .

On April 26, at a time when the whole country was in full swing due to the meeting between Bush and Jung-hwan, the beatings of Baekgoldan, which were inflicted on a college student at Myongji University, and the suicide by self-immolation that led to a protest against this, are not known to a progressive group with strong nationalist tendencies. He poured oil on the people’s skeptical gaze.

Though not yet aware of themselves, the claims of progressive groups that are blooming in the hearts of the people of the Republic of Korea, or the protagonists who were once pro-democracy fighters and who fought against the military dictatorship while drinking tear gas smoke, more often referred to as the ‘movement rights’. That was the fundamental question.

– Fellow citizens! Why should we bleed for America’s war? Why don’t you know that, despite the 40 years of division and the Korean War, our Korean people were only mobilized as scapegoats for proxy wars between foreign powers, including the United States? As revealed in the deployment to the Gulf War more than a year ago, this country’s military government is a subordinate collaborator of the mighty US imperialists, and the national rebels who drive flowery students to death in foreign battlefields and protest processions….

– hey! Didn’t you see that the head of the North Korean gang that you’re talking about shaking hands with the US imperialist president was published in the newspapers? Don’t you know that the world has changed yet?

– ………….!! Newspapers and TV stations, you can’t trust them all, Mister! The media everywhere is nothing less than a gang of manipulation, fabrication, and incitement by the military government, such as the reporting guidelines.

– It’s all about the British and Japanese newspapers right now, but the manipulation is what freezes to death… And you killed young children, saying they’re scapegoats, but you guys who say that they force themselves to clone anyone they meet and eat their corpse arms! The Myongji University student who died this time also said that you guys died because of your gang! Those with a stronger head than the North Korean gangsters are the president and the government. Stop playing the protests and go in and focus on your duty as a student!

Although it was the propaganda of the new military that all activists followed North Korea or further insisted on unification of the enemy, most of them received a culture shock at the level of medieval people who first encountered the heliocentric theory when they saw the North Korean supreme leader and the US president friendly walking and talking. it could not be denied

With anti-Americanism and nationalism as the basis of their ideology, the nationalist progressive left, which has set North Korea as a potential opponent for solidarity or unification, and the United States as a foreign oppressor for oppressing the Korean people, is reorganizing its logic in time to keep pace with North Korea’s rapid changes. failed to do

The beating and killing cases and self-immolation protests that previously would have provoked nationwide protests and student movements were no longer well-received by the people who were weary of the deaths of young people.

The final blow was a critical editorial published in the Goryeo Ilbo by a poet and activist who was called a major figure in the democratization movement.

“Young friends, what do you learn from history and from the present? Get rid of the good news of death right now !＞