Chapter 75: The Captured Siblings
Chapter 75: The Captured Siblings
Since when did Korea have the power to notify China like this?
Zhang Min laughed bitterly and then stopped abruptly.
“···You’re crazy.”
“It’s not me who’s crazy, it’s China who’s squatting on South Korean land. This is the only warning. If you don’t withdraw your troops within 100 hours, you’ll find out how the North Korean tank division disappeared.”
Was he the young man who was groveling next to the president back then?
He was so different that he doubted if he was the same person.
Zhang Min barely sorted out his thoughts and growled.
“You’ll hurt yourself if you think of China as North Korea.”
“Well, from my point of view, they’re no different. They’re just a bigger North Korea.”
“You’re out of your mind···Do you think the 80th Army is all of China?”
“Sure, the Rocket Force has nearly a thousand nuclear missiles. But the soldiers who command the Rocket Force are not under your command.”
“If it’s for confronting South Korea, they can easily unify their opinions.”
He bit his tongue.
“Think about it. North Korea fired 15 nuclear missiles and dropped 40 nuclear warheads on Seoul. But why is Seoul still intact?”
“That damn Iron Beam.”
“Yeah, North Korea’s nuclear warheads were all airburst warheads. You know very well about the range of Iron Beam.”
He was mocked by his tone and Zhang Min gritted his teeth.
It was true that the air force that was torn apart by the Iron Beam deployed in Taiwan was enormous.
At least 10 or more air brigades had evaporated, and now they had to pull out forces from inland.
They also had to relocate the troops stationed in Xinjiang Uyghur.
Anyway, at this point, there was only one way to destroy the Iron Beam.
Pouring Dongfeng ballistic missiles.
The cost was enough to make him cry, but he had no choice.
“Yeah, Iron Beam makes me angry. I told you before, right? You guys are next after Taiwan.”
“Well, I’m planning to give 20 more Iron Beams to Taiwan this time.”
He couldn’t stand hearing that and Zhang Min started to threaten him.
“I’ll say it clearly this time. The moment any of your weapons systems enter Taiwan, we’ll consider it a challenge to the entire China.”
“Really? I’ve already given them 5 railguns and 10 Iron Beams. Wasn’t that a challenge?”
He heard a low laugh and Zhang Min exploded.
“Why are you doing this! Why are you interfering with our fight! Taiwan is our land! The two sides are one!”
“North Korea is the same. So choose one, Taiwan or North Korea.”
“Are you sane?”
“One more word about me being crazy or insane and this call is over. And I have Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong in my custody. You have no reason to intervene in North Korea. So don’t bother me and get out.”
“···”
Zhang Min was silent.
It was true that the two Kims had disappeared after the battle with the pursuit force.
The 80th Army was also barely holding on in North Korea to find them.
But if he had them in his custody···
“···I’ll contact you again. Bring me proof.”
“I hope you make a good choice.”
The call ended and Arma and Bae Sung-min, the chief secretary, came in.
Where he was now was the Prime Minister’s official residence office in Samcheong-dong.
The Blue House, which had been bombed, had been neatly repaired, but he was not the president and he had no intention of using it.
“Sir, did you call me?”
The chief secretary bowed his head and he didn’t even look at him and ordered.
“Tell all the ministers who offered their resignations this time to submit their resignations.”
“What do you mean···”
“They must have been offered according to the order of acting authority, right? They all refused, so it must have reached the Minister of National Defense.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I can’t trust people who don’t want to take responsibility with work.”
“But sir, if they leave their positions at this time, there will be no suitable candidates···”
“I’ll introduce Lucia.”
The secretary thought he had heard wrong for a moment.
He had heard that Silla Group used artificial intelligence for work, but he also introduced it to government agencies?
“Sir, pardon me, but may I say something?”
“Go ahead.”
He got permission and his voice became stronger.
“A company and a country are very different. The country’s policies require coordination and compromise. This is essential for realizing proper democracy···”
“Don’t say such obvious things that only appear in middle school textbooks and look at reality. So did you neglect the 60,000 prisoners while coordinating and compromising? Thanks to that, we got criticized by the investigator from the UN.”
“That’s···”
He had nothing to say.
The number of North Korean prisoners captured by the South Korean army was 58,000.
It was a war that proceeded so hastily that there was no facility to accommodate them.
They first dispersed them in public training centers and schools, but felt the need to manage them integrally and started to build facilities in Jeonnam and Gyeongbuk, but there was friction in the process.
The locals strongly opposed it.
There was almost a violent protest despite the martial law, and the officials in charge were severely reprimanded.
The former president was very interested in acquiring titles that looked big and great, but he didn’t care about these things at all.
The ministers under him pushed the responsibility to each other and the administrative system did not work properly.
A investigator from the UN Human Rights Council saw the poor level of food and necessities provided to the prisoners and was appalled.
―South Korea, a developed country, did not provide proper nutrition and medical services to the wounded. This is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention.
The bureaucrats rushed in and promised to prevent recurrence, but the construction of proper prisoner camps was a mess.
Bae Sung-min, the chief secretary, knew better than anyone else about this situation and he had tried to push it forward, but the president himself had no interest and he couldn’t get the cooperation of the related ministries.
He continued.
“For now, I’ll only apply Lucia to the Ministry of Unification and the prisoner issue. Get ready for that. And get the resignation from the governor of North Korea’s 5th Province.”
“···Yes.”
“And you seem to want to quit after finishing your work, but I don’t care about that. Keep doing it.”
“But sir. It’s customary to serve two···”
“Is custom that important? I don’t care who it is as long as they do their job well. And Arma.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How many people can we accommodate on Terra Island?”
“We can accommodate more than 200,000 soon. We don’t have electricity yet, but we have a desalination facility that can supply water.”
“Electricity can be supplied later, so just finish building it.”
The secretary listened to their conversation and fell into doubt.
Was he talking about that island in the North Pacific that the US ceded?
He had heard that they had established a small country called the United Human Federation, but he had never heard of any facilities there.
‘Where did they get the materials from?’
Did they transport them with that strange WIG line?
He had questions after questions and he finally spoke to him.
“We’ll accommodate the prisoners on that island. I’ve prepared a cargo ship, so send them as soon as the paperwork is done.”
“Send the prisoners to that island? Sir, I’m just saying this in case···”
He raised his arm.
“Don’t worry, there’s no prisoner abuse. South Korea is so small that everyone is uncomfortable, so we’re just accommodating them there.”
“What about food and medicine?”
“There’s a kind-hearted person who will take care of that. You just coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense and prepare to send them.”
If he sent the prisoners to that island, most of the problems would be solved.
There would be a lot of paperwork because it was a foreign country.
He flipped through a few reports.
“Food aid to Pyongyang. Arma, tell Russia to bring in food. About 200,000 tons should do.”
“As you wish, sir.”
They disguised the spam produced in Kamchatka Peninsula as Russian-made.
The Russian government must have received Putin’s order to provide all convenience, so there would be no problem importing it.
The secretary was astonished as he listened to their conversation.
The problems that had been blocked until now were being solved like water flowing.
He was completely different from the former president who was busy with responsibility shifting.
―Pyongyang food aid plan? You should talk to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
―Oh···Do you think the president should care about such things? I’m a person who draws big pictures.
He could write several books about the absurd words and deeds of the former president, but he decided to bury them in his heart.
Instead, he felt a great interest in him.
Unlike other bureaucrats who were stuck in favoritism, he was handling it like his own work.
Considering that he was a temporary acting authority, it was a remarkable thing.
‘I guess I should help him.’
He sincerely bowed his head to him.
“I’ll carry out your orders as soon as possible.”
“Let’s work together.”
After he left, he gave instructions to Arma.
“It’s time to bring them over. How’s their health?”
“One has lost a lot of weight and the other has gained a lot.”
Regular life and nutrition supply were enough to change their body shape.
“They might doubt if they’re fake. Leave them in an area that hasn’t been searched yet.”
“Yes.”
…
A month after the war began, an urgent report came in.
Soldiers from the 1st Corps search team found Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong in a civilian house near Pyongyang.
They were drugged and arrested without even being interrogated and sent to Seoul.
They originally intended to use a helicopter, but there was also the former president’s case, so they used a bus instead.
The Kim family, who had ruled North Korea for decades, were finally captured.
Many other relatives and high-ranking officials were also captured in this war, but none were as important as these two.
And so people flocked to the roads where the bus passed by.
“Death! Death!”
“They must not be spared!”
“Death penalty! Death penalty!”
“They must not be spared!”
The people of South Korea were clamoring for the death of the Kim family.
Some people even tried to jump to get a glimpse of Kim Jong-un’s face, but they couldn’t see it because of the tinted windows.
He received an excited report from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that they had captured the two siblings.
“Your soldiers must have worked very hard.”
“I don’t even know how many days we’ve been searching without proper sleep.”
“Send the soldiers who found them home on a helicopter right away and promote the officers by one rank.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll take care of that.”
“What’s your plan for the future?”
“We plan to lock them up and monitor them at the military academy after a brief interrogation.”
At this point, Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong’s status was not that of prisoners, but of rebels, traitors, and war criminals.
This was because the constitution of South Korea did not recognize the regime of North Korea itself.
However, under international law, they were prisoners of war and South Korea had a responsibility to comply with it as a member of the UN.
He had no intention of killing them rashly.
He had to extract information from them for a long time.
The news that they had been captured filled South Korean society with joy.
It was a common phenomenon that soldiers lost their morale when their leader was captured.
The guerrillas who had been almost brainwashed would surely lose their will to fight.
The news that Kim Jong-un had been captured spread all over the world.
The United States and Russia sent messages of relief, while Europe expressed concern for human rights.
And China reacted with disbelief.
―I don’t know about anything else, but he lost too much weight. There is a possibility that Korea used a stand-in, so I’ll check it out in person.
The acting president’s answer was simple.
―I refuse.
There were a few things that changed when he became the acting president.
First, the National Intelligence Service agents were replaced by Presidential Security Service staff.
The security pattern changed from keeping a distance so as not to interfere with his personal life to sticking close to him at close range.
This security included Arma as well.
She was treated as his spouse by many people because she was his partner.
Also, his meals were taken care of by the Cheong Wa Dae management office and his vehicle was changed to a bulletproof one.
His salary was also raised to a level comparable to that of the president, although it didn’t mean much to him.
He gathered his secretaries, security staff, and others and said this:
“I’d like to get rid of all these formalities and procedures if I could, but I guess it would be confusing. Instead, I’ll ask you one thing. I hate wasting time more than anything. So please simplify things like formalities and security procedures.”
He seemed to be this type of acting president.
The security staff, including the chief, didn’t pay much attention to his words.
It was something that new presidents usually said when they took office.
They probably felt the need to show that they were different from the previous president.
But those people changed their minds as soon as they saw the security staff demonstrate their skills.
They fought terrorists and blocked bullets with their bodies, making the president automatically say that he would follow whatever they suggested after seeing their hardships.
But he was different.
He was not an ordinary person and he had Arma by his side.
He was someone who didn’t really need security.
He reacted indifferently even though the security staff made noises and showed their skills.
“Just reduce the procedures by half. I won’t tell you to reduce the number of staff, but you shouldn’t bother me either.”
The reason why he reacted like this was because he couldn’t go to his usual cafeteria anymore.
He was the acting president, but he was also the de facto chairman of Silla Group.
He had a lot of work to do at the headquarters, but every time he went there, the burly security staff made him uncomfortable.
They even tried to inspect the ingredients of the cafeteria beforehand and blocked the communication network, causing inconvenience to many people.
Eventually, he said one thing:
“I’m not the president, I’m just an emergency acting president. Save the real security for later and leave me alone for now.”
From the perspective of the security staff, there was no difference between being a president or an acting president.
But after some compromise, they decided to lower the level of security significantly at the headquarters.
Thanks to that, they stopped following him into his office.
The reason why he did this was because he had many secret conversations.
The security staff’s mouths might be tight, but since he was a future person, he felt more comfortable when there were no people
around him.
The more eyes and ears there are, the higher the possibility of leakage.
That’s how he was able to have a conversation with Japanese prime minister in peace.