Dear Comrade

Dear Comrade Leader, Episode 218

And through that process, it was revealed from Jeonghwan’s mouth that for the first time a month after the North-South railway connection-trans-Siberian railroad extension plan was announced, Jeonghwan did not know anything else, but foresaw one thing correctly.

That is, the plan of connecting the North-South railroad was very ‘sexy’ for the Korean people, that is, according to the media’s purifying expression, ‘greatly stimulated the imagination’.

-The road to the north that is finally open! Does the stopped iron horse start running again?

-The initial plan is a large-scale construction with a length of 1500 km… … It was put on the planning table of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which had been only a concept for more than a decade.

-To the cutlassfish of Busan Port, Raseon! Cheonjisu of Mt. Baekdu, in Seoul!

Considering its scale and symbolism, it seemed that the grand duke of the century and the work of the century were decided too quickly, but looking inside, it was clearly not so decided.

To tell the truth, when the North-South railway unification plan was announced in 2004, there was only one line in North Korea, but the high-speed railway already existed.

This was the ‘Korea Rapid Train (KRT)’, which had imported France’s TGV system and was scheduled to open next year, that is, in 2005, the year immediately following the opening of KTX.

– Comrade general secretary. It seems that our republic should now have at least one high-speed rail. Highways are being built day by day, but there are still many unopened sections. However, I am still very unfamiliar with flying machines (airplanes)… … .

– I got a report from the railway province. Since there are still a lot of difficulties in designing and manufacturing in-house in the Republic, let’s think about placing an order in a new place where the initial route is imported from Japan or France and the next route is developed by ourselves.

It seemed a bit early to introduce high-speed rail after only 10 years of the start of the market economy system, but considering that North Korea’s main mode of transport (as in a socialist country) was the railroad rather than the highway, it was not particularly early.

Until now, it was not that high-speed rail or regular trains were not rolled because they did not know how good railroads were, but only because the railroad environment deteriorated terribly through Kim Il-sung-Kim Jong-il.

-I was in the middle of using a steam locomotive on active duty, haha, thinking about it, you’ve come a long way since then.

Just after Jeong Hwan took office, the restoration and improvement of the restored standard-gauge railway (with the support of China) was almost over. could not be introduced.

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Not to mention before the reform and opening up, even just after the opening in the early 1990s, the traffic volume was so low that there was no need for a railroad, so even a highway was enough.

However, the situation has changed as a market economy system has been established and the need for transportation of goods and people between regions in North Korea has increased significantly.

“Are you saying that people who can’t ride a serbit car shouldn’t even do business between regions? Even if the travel permit system is abolished, the people who can’t go as I want are the same as the people of Kim Jong-il or the people of Kim Jeong-hwan, you X… … .”

“Piyang (Pyongyang) is no different! I was thinking of making some money right away and going back to my hometown for the holidays, but the drivers of the service cars received several times more money and ate them, and while waiting for the steam railroad, they died of old age before going home!”

As a result, in the mid-1990s, discussions about transportation methods that would disperse the rapidly increasing amount of transportation other than automobiles began to surface. After the first and third rounds, the connection with the Russian and Chinese routes was also being considered.

And finally, right after the North-South compromise in 1998, when the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the transportation of military supplies were talking about a serious problem, and even the People’s Army, who was stuck in the hustle and bustle, was arguing over ‘Japan Shinkansen or French TGV’, Jeong Hwan made a decision.

-The French TGV is more appropriate in view of the republic’s topography and the spirit of the great anti-Japanese partisan struggle. Contact the Embassy of the Republic of France and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to proceed with the project.

‘Now that I see, the general secretary had a plan from the beginning. Kiya, who had South Korea in mind from the beginning. Russia, I’m only going to lend you the land going to China and eat the whole thing that was developed and developed with blood and sweat… … .’

Jang Seong-taek, who received a positive answer from the South Korean side, saying, ‘We will actively review the proposal for KTX introduction’ at Panmunjom, thought it was strange in the car on the way back.

Somehow, since the anti-Japanese partisan talk, I wondered why the supreme leader, who usually doesn’t even care about the party ideology, which is not clear whether that is the case or not, is talking about such a thing. remembered what he had done.

The gauge is also the same standard gauge, the population is a little over 30 million, but it is a waste of money to develop a high-speed rail in a mountainous republic on its own, and it is difficult to guarantee success. It was the intention of using the connection as a bait to bring it in and use it at a low price.

Of course, even if South Korea fails or succeeds in developing its own high-speed rail, if it fails to meet the increase in demand for railroads in the Republic and is delayed, the republic, which only trusted South Korea, becomes very difficult.

However, thanks to the feats of the localization of high-speed rail (?) by the South Koreans instead, all we need to do is devise a technology transfer.

Seeing that North Korea did not recognize any other competitors in the bidding process for the first route, the TGV guys who knew they would win orders for the rest of the routes in the future would jump on board, but they didn’t give a definite answer in the first place, so what do you know?

In 2004, the opening of the 330km/h Gyeongui High-Speed Line, the first KRT line constructed by French National Railways connecting Sinuiju, Jeongju, Sinanju, Pyongyang, Sariwon, Haeju, and Kaesong, was approaching next year. .

Even though Jang Seong-taek himself offered a very cheap price for the order for the KTX North Korea route, which was developed and is about to open, and even talked about technology transfer, South Korean and South Korean officials were still smiling.

As the general secretary swore, the ideal of ‘connecting the north-south railroad and advancing into Siberia’ seemed to be quite ‘sexy’ to both government officials and civilians.

‘What’s strange is that even those calculating South Koreans don’t think they’re losing money. Perhaps the general secretary was also thinking about this and decided to support the vice minister at the time of the grand compromise… … .’

If that were true, Jang Sung-taek laughed bitterly, saying that it would be very bold.

But soon after Hosadamara returned to Pyongyang and delivered optimistic prospects for negotiations on a high-speed rail link, discord began to emerge in South Korea’s domestic politics.

The irony is that this cacophony did not come from the conservative camp in Korea, who used the ‘North Korea, which dyed the country and the mountains with blood on June 25 and still did not give up the ambition for unification of red fire and fire’ as a regular repertoire, but rather the progressive camp, to be more precise, the Saenara Party. It was said that it came from the Democrats who handed it over.

* * *

“It’s a one-to-one trade… … After all, our republic has enjoyed many benefits from South Korean entrepreneurs.”

“To be honest, it was their help that the republic was able to achieve the restoration and development of light industry so quickly. Right now, half of the clothes of women in the Republic still come from clothing factories in the capital of South Korea… … .”

“Besides, isn’t this year’s general election in South Korea? It seems that President Lee Hyun-chang is facing his first challenge in office.”

It was a conversation between Jeong-hwan and Kim Yong-geon while watching South Korean Democratic Party lawmakers exclaiming at the standing committee, ‘Let’s not hand over high-speed rail to a dictatorial North Korea that destroys the livelihood of the people’.

In their mouths, holding the Goryeo Ilbo and other newspapers in one hand and waving it, the name ‘podaegali trade’, which is still unfamiliar to the North Korean people, appeared several times.

A little explanation was needed to understand this word, which has recently been used mainly by the media of the progressive camp in Korea, but it all started with the 1998 North-South Great Compromise and the North and South Korea limited the capital and labor markets of both countries, but much more than before. It’s been open since.

-President Park. Are you saying that Mokwoo’s industrial factories are all moving to the north these days? Still, they’re rednecks, so aren’t you worried that they’ll take them all away with a pistol?

– Mr. Im. Don’t you remember that the rednecks bought Ssangyong Motor and Koryo Securities some time ago to their country? Low wages, no unions, no competitors… … Besides, if you move the factory there, there will be one more bonanza.

– One more bonanza? Where is that?

-China! When it comes to customs, Chinese children do not pay customs duties on goods marked ‘Made In North Korea’, and those with a corporate address in Pyongyang do not often demand territorial taxation or money from foreign companies? They’re the same red country, so what kind of customs union or something like that… … . That’s why it doesn’t seem like it’s too shabby.

-really? It’s amazing, but that’s it! Anyway, these days, economic newspapers called economic newspapers are talking about the Chinese market as a bonanza for the next 10 years… … .

– It’s hard to fly to Southeast Asia where I’m unfamiliar with the language and unfamiliar with the plant management, but it’s more convenient to leave the plant in Pyongyang, which is a two-hour drive from Seoul. And, rather than learning English to get Filipinos to work, isn’t it much easier to learn a little bit of a cultural dialect?

After the Great North-South Compromise in 1998 and the crisis better known as the foreign exchange crisis in Korea, a harsh cold wind blew in Korea alike.

Although the worst situation of losing economic sovereignty was avoided with a loan from North Korea, the overall economic world was ‘how did the country get to this point?’ As voices of self-reliance spread, even progressive governments like Yu Min-jung could not avoid the prescription of introducing irregular workers, flexible employment, and easing wage growth.

And the first blow of neoliberalism and austerity management winds that started blowing like that was, of course, a massive fad of subcontracting and outsourcing to reduce costs.

First of all, the advantage of being able to communicate and close to each other was great, but around the time Jiang Zemin took office in 1994, Jung-hwan signed a mutual tariff preferential treaty with China (for political reasons, of course), and Korean companies were forced to enter the Chinese market, which caused an allergic reaction to foreign capital. The reason it was so much easier than that was very big.

The company, capital, and technology are all Korean-made, but only workers go through the hands of North Koreans (of course, only for export to China).

In addition, as the now deceased Chairman Moon-Young Chung and Hyundai Group have proven, workers do not have to argue that they will form a union, and that the North Korean authorities are as adept at beating protesters as they are in the 1970s with South Korea due to the recent cargo-driver protest. has not been proven

More importantly, many South Korean companies felt the will of the North Korean authorities to actively protect the ‘rights and interests’ of foreign companies, regardless of large and small companies.

-President. Now, from a development economic point of view, Korea has passed the time when it is possible to enjoy the advantage of low wages. Consider moving the 2nd and 3rd factories in Gwangju and Chungnam, and even the 1st factory in Suwon.

-Yeah, let’s leave only the R&D center and the headquarters in Seoul, and move all the simple processing lines to Gaeseong or Sinuiju! No, if you can do better in the upper neighborhood, consider moving the head office there in the future!

The problem, however, is that these companies’ factory rush to North Korea means that, no matter how simple the process, the jobs of Koreans will move to North Korea.

In other words, it meant that Korean workers had to compete with North Koreans in the job market hit by the cold wave after the financial crisis.

Although it is relatively difficult to feel in Seoul, where highly educated, high-paying professional occupations are concentrated, the fire has really gone down in regions where the local economy is directly dependent on the factories of large corporations.

And, of course, these economic changes also affected the political arena. More precisely, the progressive Democratic Party reacted more sensitively to these changes than the Conservative and Saenara Party.

– Senator, come to think of it, our northern compatriots… … No, North Koreans… … No, that Kim Jung-hwan is no different from the North Koreans who are addicted to the sugar water dripped by the fascist dictatorship.

Just as South Korea’s conservative political circle has undergone reorganization once with North Korea’s reform and opening up and once again due to the attempted coup attempt and arrest during the Park Yi-sam era, the progressive political circle has also undergone major changes.

Once a small amount of traffic and information began to be exchanged between the two Koreas, the Juche factions, which once worshiped North Korea as a socialist supreme rakwon, completely disappeared.

Also, in the 1970s and 1980s, the activists who fought fiercely against the Yushin and the new military dictatorship and rose to the mainstream of the Democratic Party, secretly believed that North Korea had to walk the path of compromise and unification rather than confrontation with the same ethnicity and compatriots. I witnessed a close collusion with Korea’s large capital and conglomerates, which he hated and viewed as servants of the dictatorship.

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No, even putting all other ideological issues aside, there was a flood of protests at their constituency offices right now saying, ‘The North Koreans are taking all our jobs, where are you and what are you doing, or are you sleeping in the National Assembly?’

Of course, it was not only the Democratic Party, but also the Conservative ruling party and the Saenara Party that caused such dissatisfaction in the constituency.

However, it was only natural that the Democratic Party (Democratic Party) was more active in addressing the issue of job outflow than the Saenara Party, who had long been soul mates with the Korean conglomerates (the direct beneficiaries of this rush of subcontracting to North Korea).

In addition, the regional base of the Saenara Party lawmakers (half regionalism, half the development ease) benefited from planned development, so the Yeongnam region was relatively relaxed in the job outflow issue.

And it was clear that this problem of job outflow would only get worse when high-speed rail between the north and the south made transportation easier and the Eurasian economic bloc came within the visibility of Korean companies in the future.

After going through such a complicated process, by the time North Korea finally knew about the introduction of KTX to South Korea and the problem of connecting the Siberian railway, the slogan of the conservative-progressive camp in Korea had changed completely by the time it was thrown into the dizzying 17th general election in 2004. .

-Democratic citizen voters! Has your living improved a bit? Isn’t it? Isn’t this all because of North Korea’s fascist dictator Kim Jung-hwan? Remember! Economy is twice! 2nd job! To protect the economy, protect liberal democracy, and protect your jobs, symbol number 2 is the Democratic Party! Please vote for the Democratic Party of Liberal Democracy and Economy!

-Dear Patriotic Citizens! You must not fall for the schism of that anti-nationalist Democratic Party that promotes inter-Korean conflict! Now the time has come for us to join hands with our compatriots in the north to perform a major event for the nation! That vast Siberia, Gando, is waiting for our Korean people to step forward! everyone! symbol number one! Patriotic Conservative Peace Economy Saenara Party!