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Chapter 76: A Game of Conditions and Secrets
Chapter 76: A Game of Conditions and Secrets
“Congratulations, Acting President.”
“You don’t have to call me that. It’s not an official title. You can call me Chairman as before. I’m more comfortable with that.”
He was one of the few people in Korea who had such a complex position.
He was the de facto chairman of Silla Group, a member of the National Assembly, the Minister of National Defense, and the Acting President.
“My apologies. Anyway, I contacted you to propose the three conditions you mentioned last time.”
The three conditions Japan would propose in exchange for sharing the technology of the ion beam fusion reactor.
One was the right to freely navigate the southern seas of Japan, and the other two were about to be said by the Prime Minister.
“Before I hear them, I have something I want to propose to you.”
“What is it? I’ll listen.”
“Do you know about Terra Island? It’s an island in the North Pacific...”
“The island that belongs to Chairman Yu and is the mainland of the United Federation.”
“That’s right. Anyway, a large number of people have moved to that island recently. They are not ordinary people, but prisoners.”
“I see... You moved them to the island because of the UN’s surveillance.”
“It’s hard to supply materials to the island because of its nature. I was hoping you could help me.”
“Exactly how...?”
“Provide unlimited food, other necessities, medicine and medical services to the prisoners. How about that?”
In other words, he wanted him to pay with money.
Japan’s role in the international community was often like that, and Prime Minister Ozawa was used to it.
But the scale was too big.
“There are currently 60,000 people and we don’t know how many more there will be. That’s too much...”
It was a burden for Japan’s economy to feed 60,000 people.
So Yu Ji-ha added one more condition.
“If this condition is accepted, I will immediately send Japanese researchers to Solar Fusion. I will share all the data and research process with you.”
“Hmm...”
Prime Minister Ozawa pondered.
This could turn around public opinion in Japan.
Sharing all the data meant that Japan could soon build a fusion reactor.
It meant securing one of the most reliable future technologies.
The only problem was that the basis of that technology was Yu Ji-ha and Silla Group.
The dismissed Self-Defense Forces officers had stirred up public opinion by mentioning the reconnaissance plane incident.
―South Korea attacked Japan! Therefore, exercising self-defense is a legitimate right!
―The Ozawa regime is trying to give away Japan’s sea to Yu Jiha with a secret agreement! This is an anti-national act!
When news came out that South Korea had shot down a reconnaissance plane, Japan was once again burning with intense anti-Korean sentiment.
Some questioned why they approached a warship of a warring country, but they only repeated that they were attacked like parrots.
The media, who had finally found something to bite South Korea with, reported on this incident enthusiastically.
South Korea itself didn’t seem to care much about this incident because it was at war.
Something decisive was needed to reverse this opinion.
Yu Ji-ha sighed lightly as the answer took too long.
“You seem to be deep in thought. I understand. Let’s pretend this never happened...”
If it never happened, the one who would lose was clearly Prime Minister Ozawa.
His position in Japan was shrinking endlessly.
“No, no. The condition was to provide supplies for the prisoners on Terra Island, right?”
“I’ll specify the items. They’ll be repatriated as soon as the war is over, so it won’t be long.”
He didn’t mention a specific date, but Prime Minister Ozawa judged that he couldn’t drag out the war for too long.
Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong had been captured, and Pyongyang was on the verge of falling in front of tens of thousands of drones.
Considering their status in North Korea, it was fair to say that unification was imminent.
The real problem would start from now on.
“I accept it. And the third condition is a technology fee. Think of it as a commission for receiving data. This applies per fusion reactor...”
A considerable amount was mentioned.
He must really need it desperately to propose such a condition that restricts himself.
Yu Ji-ha was satisfied with his condition.
“Good. Then let’s make an official agreement.”
This agreement would inevitably be made public and cause quite a stir.
Perhaps the anti-prime minister faction would start acting more actively.
If the prime minister suppressed them, Japan would lean toward pro-Korea, and if not, Japan would become more right-wing and start rearming.
Yu Ji-ha didn’t care either way.
The second leader who called Yu Ji-ha was the President of the United States.
He briefly congratulated him and went straight to the point.
“Let’s put aside the matter of the captured king for now... Don’t we have a lot to say to each other?”
“You have something to ask me, and I have something to demand from you.”
“You know what? You’re the first person to say that you’re going to demand something from me.”
“I don’t have anything to lose anymore.”
The USFK had withdrawn and most Americans had returned to their country.
The only connection between Korea and the United States was the history of being allies.
And a few US troops that entered Gangwon-do.
“... I provided you with the data of electronic warfare at the beginning of the war and let you use the military GPS as it is. I also deployed Aegis ships to intercept nuclear missiles. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“I think I’ve given you enough personal benefits to offset all that and more.”
“The only thing you provided only to us was the railgun.”
He was obviously annoyed that he gave the ion thruster to Russia.
“South Korea is the only country that has electrified the railgun besides the United States.”
“But it’s downgraded. Anyway, I understand that Chairman Yu can’t back down. Let’s try to solve it through dialogue.”
Well, I doubt it would be easy.
President McKinley went straight to the core.
“North Korea is not a fool. There’s no way all 40 nuclear warheads are defective. I want a clear explanation.”
“I don’t have an obligation to report everything to the United States.”
“There have been some countries with that stance so far.”
“And they all collapsed by the United States... Is that what you want to say?”
“Ah, let’s not raise the intensity of the conversation too much. We’re not like that.”
“It would have been fine if the US troops hadn’t entered Gangwon-do.”
President McKinley laughed holding the receiver.
He was obviously annoyed that he had put troops in North Korea’s Gangwon-do without any consultation.
At a glance, it was easy to think that the two countries were allies, and South Korean soldiers also thought so.
But after the USFK withdrew and the defense treaty was nullified, the United States was nothing more than a friendly country.
Yu Ji-ha didn’t have any intention of turning the United States into an enemy yet.
“So... What do you want to demand from me? Get out of the Korean Peninsula?”
“That’s right.”
“But the South Korean War has a deep connection with the United States. The actual end of the war is imminent, but you can’t exclude us.”
“Do you want to bring up the armistice agreement?”
“If necessary. I think Chairman Yu has something to offer us that will push us away.”
“What I’m about to mention now should only be known by yourself. If it leaks out, I guarantee you, the impact will be incomparable to anything so far.”
“... You mean something more than what Chairman Yu has done so far. I understand. I’ll listen alone.”
He heard a rustling sound and Yu Ji-ha waited for a while.
“It’s done. I’m alone in the Oval Office.”
“What made North Korea’s nuclear warheads ineffective this time was thanks to a new element. We call it anttron.”
“Anttron... Let me guess. Anti-neutron...”
His voice lowered as he confidently guessed.
He must have guessed from the name that this was no joke.
“Are you kidding me... It suppresses neutrons’ movement? Nuclear reactions?”
He guessed right away, which meant he studied hard in his school days.
“Nuclear fission and fusion are both suppressed. That’s why it’s called anti-neutron.”
“You look more like a person after losing some weight.”
Yu Ji-ha said a word, but he just lay down again.
“Did you lose your motivation along with your country? It wasn’t yours in the first place.”
“...”
Kim Jong-un lay down for a while and then got up and sat on a chair as if he was bored.
“You’re a capitalist acting as an authority. Is South Korea so leaderless?”
“The people chose me. The conversation we’re having now won’t be recorded, so you can answer comfortably.”
There was a sneer on his lips.
“It’s probably some useless offer.”
“Well, your life is at stake. Do you think it’s useless?”
“No. I know you guys well. You can’t kill me.”
“Why can’t we kill you?”
“If you kill me, the agreement with Europe will be broken. You wouldn’t want that.”
“The public opinion is so high for killing you. We might resume executions for the first time in 30 years.”
“Are you being swayed by public opinion without making your own decision? How South Korean of you.”
“I calculated the benefits and it turned out that killing you is better. China might criticize us, but they won’t bother us anymore. What’s the use of taking your corpse?”
“...”
He was serious.
Kim Jong-un tensed up and Yu Jiha threw a pile of documents on the table.
“This is an indictment prepared by the prosecution. It’s over 1,000 pages long for the first time ever, so you should be proud.”
His cheeks turned pale.
“They must have attached all kinds of lies.”
“It’s not finished yet. It will be much longer when we include the concentration camps.”
“I don’t know anything about the concentration camps. The party officials took care of it.”
“Do you really not know?”
Yu Jiha took out his laptop and showed him a video of the concentration camp.
It was a video of the horrible atrocities committed against the prisoners.
Kim Jong-un frowned and closed his eyes.
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“I promise I won’t kill you if you give me the list of prisoners and guards. You must have it since you were in the bunker until the end.”
He made this offer because he had made a deal with the UN.
The UN doubted North Korea’s willingness to start a war and thought that South Korea’s preemptive strike was excessive.
But the war had happened and it couldn’t be reversed.
Now, they decided that it was more beneficial to induce North Korea to stabilize rather than to pressure South Korea.
So, under the leadership of the permanent members such as the US and Russia, they proposed one thing.
To hand over the data of North Korea’s political prisoner camps, which were called the worst human rights abuse sites.
China, which had a similar problem with the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, resisted, but they couldn’t go against the trend.
Yu Ji-ha was annoyed by the UN’s interference in South Korean affairs, but he agreed to cooperate.
They promised not to intervene in North Korean issues anymore if he solved this.
There was a long way to go for complete unification, but he couldn’t fill his stomach at once.
Yu Ji-ha leaned his face forward and said.
“By the way, I’m making the same offer to your sister. The one who talks first gets to live.”
He chuckled.
“So you also trade sentences in South Korea? But you won’t get the answer you want.”
“Let’s see if it really doesn’t work.”
Yu Jiha plugged a wireless earphone into his ear.
“The moment I take this out of my ear, the soldiers will come in. We’ll announce that you committed suicide with a hidden drug externally.”
“...”
Kim Jong-un’s massive body began to tremble.
He had ordered summary executions plenty of times, but he never imagined that he would be subjected to it.
“By the way, your sister, whom you trust, has already told me the name of the director of Camp 15. His name is Park Mansul. I’ll have to check the list later.”
For the first time, Kim Jong-un’s eyes shook greatly.
Only six people knew the name of Director Park Mansul of Camp 15, and three of them were dead and one had fled across the border.
Yu Ji-ha rested his chin on his hand and casually spoke.
“They said they buried them in a pit because they didn’t have enough bullets to kill the prisoners. It’ll be easy to find them if we know where the pit is.”
Now sweat began to run down Kim Jong-un’s forehead.
It was clear that Kim Yo-jong was confessing as he said.
When she finished confessing, he would take out his earphone and then it would be summary execution.
Death was approaching him.
Kim Jong-un didn’t want to die.
As long as he lived, he believed that China would somehow get him out.
He had stashed away a lot of wealth in China.
He wouldn’t be able to enjoy luxury and glory as he did in the Republic, but he could live comfortably.
But to seize that opportunity, he had to betray his sister.
As he was struggling with this dilemma, Yu Ji-ha calmly recited secrets.
In fact, what he said was based on what Arma had investigated beforehand.
Kim Yo-jong was actually exercising her right to remain silent.
Kim Jong-un couldn’t stand it anymore and shouted.
“Stop! Stop! I’ll talk!”
“What I want is the list of prisoners and guards. Where is it?”
“I burned everything that was in the bunker and at Residence 40...under my room...”
“Do you mean Nampo Residence? You hid it in an easy place to find.”
Nampo was where the Marines were landing and fighting, so they hadn’t secured it yet.
Yu Jiha nodded and Arma deployed an armed Ford.
The Tarantula that jumped out of the Ford activated its optical camouflage net and killed all the forces at Residence 40 nearby.
Then androids were deployed and found a huge amount of documents.
「I have copied all the contents」
Yu Ji-ha got up and took out his earphone.
“Thanks for your cooperation.”
“Hey, you have to keep your promise?”
“I told you before, right? It’s annoying if China interferes. But I can’t hand you over either, so what you have to do is prove your value.”
He said he would kill him if he didn’t cooperate, so Kim Jong-un swallowed his dry saliva.
He didn’t know much about Yu Ji-ha’s conflict with China, so he had no choice but to make this judgment.
In fact, Yu Ji-ha didn’t care much about what China said.
He was going to split them up anyway.
“Now the investigation will begin in earnest, so cooperate well. Eat well. And exercise a little.”
“Y-yeah...”
The dictator who had nothing to fear was groveling.
Yu Jiha looked at his mouth and thought about his future.
Would he end up like this after he completely annihilated the Plague?
He couldn’t tell.
It was impossible to predict 70 years later and he wasn’t afraid of his downfall.
‘But...’
He hoped that no matter what government came in, they wouldn’t stop him from leaving to find the prophet’s hometown.
It was the duty of all mankind to find the hometown of the prophet who helped prevent the extinction of humanity.
Yu Ji-ha left the academy and contacted
his chief of staff.
“Tell the Marines to secure Nampo as soon as possible. There are documents at Residence 40 nearby.”
“Yes! I’ll contact the Joint Chiefs of Staff right away.”
Everything went smoothly when he stepped in.
Baeseongmin had become Yu Ji-ha’s fervent follower without realizing it.