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Chapter 92: The Rising Storm - Diplomatic Tensions and Unforeseen Consequences
Chapter 92: The Rising Storm - Diplomatic Tensions and Unforeseen Consequences
At the moment when Prime Minister Ozawa of Japan heard the shocking news, he hastily demanded his secretaries to prepare countermeasures.
Three warships emerged from the surface of the water near the east coast of Tsushima Island.
These warships looked too alien to be 21st century vessels.
Their hulls were entirely black, making them hard to distinguish, and they had no masts.
They ignored the warnings from the patrol boats of the Coast Guard that rushed to the scene and approached the island.
Captain Sanada, a first-class maritime security officer, ordered.
“What the hell are they... Notify the Maritime Self-Defense Force as soon as possible!”
The patrol boat only had a 40mm gun as its armament, so it couldn’t provoke those ships that weighed thousands of tons.
“By the way, does anyone know what kind of ships they are?”
Everyone in the bridge shook their heads.
“I have no idea. There are no ships in the world that paint their hulls black like that.”
“It would make sense if they were submarines... But they don’t look anything like submarines, do they?”
“...”
Captain Sanada felt uneasy as he watched the three ships approaching Tsushima.
There was a saying in Japan.
—If something happens, suspect Korea and Yu Ji-ha first.
It was a phrase that was spread by the Yushinkai after the nuclear test failed and it was confirmed that it was caused by antitron.
The Yushinkai claimed that anything bad that happened to Japan was always the fault of Korea and Yu Ji-ha.
Many Japanese who were influenced by their ideology stopped trusting Yu Ji-ha.
Captain Sanada didn’t fully believe that, but today it seemed certain.
“Are they trying to start a war...”
They were clearly new weapons from Korea, but what did they want?
They had committed multiple crimes, from illegal territorial intrusion to ignoring warnings.
Soon, two Asahi-class destroyers of the Maritime Self-Defense Force arrived nearby.
But even they didn’t take any action against the black ships.
Captain Sanada was angry.
“Those bastards are idiots. A Korean ship has entered Japan’s territorial waters and they’re just sitting there?”
“It’s not that simple, captain.”
The chief said and he asked irritably.
“Why not?”
“Well, because this time the Maritime Self-Defense Force occupied Takeshima by themselves. You saw it on TV before.”
He was about to argue that it was Japan’s inherent territory, but he closed his mouth.
This was not an easy topic to talk about.
It could trigger a war between Japan and Korea if handled poorly.
But they picked the wrong target.
There was a huge difference between Takeshima and Tsushima in size.
Unlike the former, which was a rock, the latter was an inhabited island with more than 20,000 people living on it.
“Is this their retaliation for us taking Takeshima? How absurd.”
Before he finished his sentence, the staff in the bridge made a fuss.
“Oh, it looks like they’re starting to attack.”
The two Asahi-class destroyers began to fire their guns in earnest.
It was a fairly short distance, so they scored hits after a few shots.
But the black ships didn’t react at all, whether they were hit or not.
The 5-inch guns looked like toy guns to them.
Then one of the staff who was watching with binoculars reported.
“Captain! Part of the hull of the black ship is transforming!”
“What? Don’t tell me...”
Was their entire hull made of black metal?
Before he could recover from his shock, the black ship finished its transformation and aimed its long barrel.
Everyone thought of the railgun cruiser that was said to be in Korea, and the actual result was no different.
A blue discharge occurred at the tip of the barrel and then it spat out projectiles one after another.
The projectiles were so fast that they hit the Asahi-class at the same time as they were fired and the sonic boom followed later.
Boom!
“121! 123 both silenced! They seem to have been completely penetrated from bow to stern!”
“Just with that?”
No matter how weak modern warships were, he never imagined that their hulls would be penetrated by one shot.
Of course, they weren’t sunk, but a ship with a broken engine was no different from a coffin.
After destroying two ships like that, the black ships calmly approached Tsushima Island.
...
“I thought it was impossible, but they really did it...”
In the office of the Prime Minister’s residence in Tokyo, endless groans were heard.
Three ships presumed to be from the United Human Federation attacked the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s vessels and landed troops on Tsushima Island.
Those troops were none other than androids and drones.
The prime minister’s secretaries seemed to be shocked by the sight of the androids that looked like Terminators.
One of the secretaries cautiously opened his mouth.
“Prime Minister, I don’t think the enemy is Korean.”
“I think so too. President Yu also said that the Korean army is not moving.”
“Do you think it’s the United Human Federation?”
“Probably...”
The United Human Federation was a small country that was born less than a year ago.
Since its owner was who he was, it was recognized by countries like the US and Russia, and it was also being invited to join the UN.
But no one knew much about their identity.
Japan didn’t know much about what was on Terra Island, except that it had facilities like prisons and camps.
One of the secretaries spoke.
“According to the latest report, the three ships are made entirely of black metal. They have ion thrusters and are armed with railguns.”
“All three of them have railguns?”
“No. The biggest ship seems to be a landing ship, and most of those androids and drones came from there. They were dropped from missiles one after another.”
At this point, Japan’s policy toward the United Human Federation had to be drastically revised.
They had to stop supplying materials to them.
But in that case, Korea would respond instead of the United Human Federation.
But only France was seriously trying to confront Korea.
The rest were adjusting their speech levels enough and even sending envoys to Korea to discuss the future.
Human rights of other countries are not very important in front of one’s own interests.
‘How narrow-minded they are...’
Prime Minister Ozawa was about to continue his speech when it happened.
Knock knock, a short knock followed by the door opening abruptly. His secretary bowed his head.
“News from the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau! Korea has attacked Takeshima!”
Prime Minister Ozawa closed his eyes in deep despair.
He had tried hard to reconcile with Yu Ji-ha after the resignation of Prime Minister Genzo Fujimoto, who had made a mistake in imposing sanctions.
But it seemed that his term was over.
Breaking off diplomatic relations was the answer.
As soon as the participants of the National Security Council sat down, they heard the news that Prime Minister Ozawa had announced his resignation.
“The right-wingers will go wild now. In the worst case scenario, we may have to break off diplomatic relations with Japan. Keep that in mind when you make policies.”
The ministers and participants were silent at Yu Ji-ha’s words.
In fact, it was not surprising that a war had broken out and diplomatic relations had been severed.
Japan had occupied Dokdo first, but for some reason, the United Human Federation intervened and destroyed two escort ships and occupied Daecheongdo.
From there, they went further and the First Fleet, which included the Kim Gu ship, successfully recaptured Dokdo.
They kept firing from a long distance, and the Third Escort Fleet decided to withdraw after operating their CIWS.
They never intended to have a serious war with Korea in the first place.
The reason was that the Maritime Self-Defense Force was related to the Yuishinkai, not the Cabinet.
They couldn’t wage a war under the orders of a single party.
Yu Ji-ha understood this point precisely and ordered them to push forward.
After that, the Marine Corps and drones were deployed to carry out an operation to reclaim Dokdo, eliciting an enthusiastic response from the people.
The detained Dokdo guards were released and more than thirty Self-Defense Forces were captured.
“Citizens! The Rising Sun flag has been lowered from Dokdo and the Taegeukgi has been raised again!”
A reporter who entered by helicopter shouted almost hysterically.
The Koreans shivered at his report.
With this, Yu Ji-ha had regained Dokdo, which had been taken away from him.
At this moment, his support would be unspeakably high.
However, he was not satisfied or happy about it.
This incident was nothing but a plan to cover up the execution of 261 people.
Just as Japan’s occupation of Dokdo came up as a material, he expanded the situation and succeeded in burying the big incident of execution.
There were not many places where domestic and foreign media dug into that incident.
Everywhere they went, they only talked about Dokdo and Daecheongdo.
Yu Ji-ha turned off the TV and the participants coughed and straightened their posture.
The deputy minister who attended instead of the vacant foreign minister asked cautiously.
He was one of the few who managed to preserve his position from the purge that hit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He probably received an evaluation of being a typical bureaucrat who did his job well.
He was originally a director-level official, but he was promoted to deputy minister after receiving Yu Ji-ha’s call.
“Mr. President, you just mentioned breaking off diplomatic relations... The aftermath will be no joke.”
“Of course it will. But it won’t hurt us in the end. We’ve overcome Zhongmeng’s blockade, haven’t we?”
The War on Both Sides brought tremendous damage to Korea as well.
The rise in prices at supermarkets was nothing compared to the many companies that went bankrupt without receiving their payments.
Nevertheless, Korea succeeded in improving its constitution, because most of its semiconductor exports were taken away by America without hesitation.
In other words, there was no room for further ruin.
The trade volume with Zhongmeng still did not recover much, but Korea’s economy was not that bad.
Yu Ji-ha and Silla Group were trying to improve Korea’s economic constitution.
To be more precise, they were trying to put it under the influence of the United Human Federation.
The deputy minister nodded his head.
“That’s true, but...”
If Yu Ji-ha said something like that, it meant that he already had a countermeasure ready.
He looked around at the participants and said,
“Japan has lost Daecheongdo and been driven out of Dokdo. Now that Prime Minister Ozawa has resigned, Yuishinkai won’t leave them alone.”
“They will probably induce a vote of no confidence in the cabinet from the maximum faction of Sakaguchi.”
“The prime minister’s seat will be taken by the Jumin Party’s moderate, Minister of Administration Kanba, so they won’t sit still. The rise of the New Japan Yuishinkai will begin.”
The participants knew very well about the tendencies of the New Japan Yuishinkai.
In short, extreme right.
They were a distinct class from Japan’s traditional right-wing, and their main goal was to break off diplomatic relations with Korea, amend Article 9 of the Constitution, and rearm.
Their power was insignificant, but it increased tremendously after they failed the nuclear test and pointed to Korea as the culprit behind it.
—Jumin Party and Ozawa, step down. You have no intention of dealing firmly with Korea and Zhongmeng.
—We cannot forgive Korea for interfering with our nuclear armament. Japan has given up a lot to Korea in the past and even transferred technology. Is this the price?
—Let’s break off diplomatic relations with the ungrateful Korea and establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Zhongmeng is currently unable to pay attention to foreign affairs because of Xinjiang Uyghur.
These claims appealed to a lot of Japan’s middle-aged and older generations.
The younger generation was more inclined to be friendly with Shilla Group, including Russia, but the mainstream of Japanese society was still the middle-aged and older generations.
Anyway, Japan’s right-wing radicalization was inevitable, and Yu Ji-ha had no intention of stopping it.
He had hoped that Prime Minister Ozawa would hold on a little longer, but it wasn’t bad that Yuishinkai caused chaos.
He had no regrets about Japan, but there were many ways to exploit them if they had an extreme tendency.
“So... I want each department to prepare policies for breaking off diplomatic relations with Japan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should prepare for withdrawing diplomatic missions.”
“Yes.”
“The Ministry of Industry should make a list of industries and items that will be affected if Japan imposes sanctions. I’ll take care of the countermeasures.”
“We’ll start right away.”
“And our military side also uses some Japanese parts... “
“I’m sorry, Mr. President, but the Korean military has domesticated most of the parts, and the exceptions are from the US or Israel...”
“Who doesn’t know that the image sensor and servo on the corps-level reconnaissance aircraft are Japanese? They’ll definitely stop exporting them, so look for image sensors from Germany. Contact BD for servos.”
How did he know that Japanese parts were applied to the corps-level reconnaissance aircraft?
Minister Kim Chul-woo sweated as if he was afraid of being caught, but nothing happened.
Yu Ji-ha gave some more instructions to the related departments and said,
“Breaking off diplomatic relations with Japan is inevitable. But there’s no need to be afraid. We may lose in the short term, but I’ll make sure it’s nothing in the long term.”
If someone else had said that, it would have sounded like arrogance or delusion.
But Yu Ji-ha actually made it happen.