Dear Comrade

Dear Comrade Leader, Episode 324

“… … Please answer me. I’ve been wanting to hear my father answer that question for the last 10 years.”

“… … you’ve grown so much Apparently it felt like yesterday when you hugged me saying you wanted to see me alone at home on Christmas… … .”

Jeonghwan did not answer the daughter Hyein’s resolute question, but made a different noise out of the blue.

But, rather than trying to avoid an answer, it was nothing other than Junghwan’s own genuinely genuine sentiments.

The last time he saw Hye-in Yoo in person was more than 10 years ago.

Junghwan thought, “It is fortunate that at least his appearance resembles his mother more,” he looked at the features of his daughter he had not seen in a long time.

And while she vomited resentment with her mouth, the fact that she missed her father was also the same on Hyein’s side.

“Hey, when are you talking? By the way, my father is also very old. … … Oh my mom… … No, my mother was the same, but… … .”

“I feel sorry for your mother a lot. Over the past few decades, it has always demanded too much sacrifice. She couldn’t go anywhere and tell her who her husband was, and she had to live away from her daughter all the time. But your mother always understood. That gratitude will never be repaid until I die.”

“… … Yes. Still, I wanted to tell the story. For what? Yeah? Why on earth did your mother accept such treatment? Father, no, this is something I’ve always wanted to ask not only my father, but also my mother. What is it that is so important that he always hides me and his mother? And why was Mom always holding on to it? What was it for?”

Jeonghwan closed his eyes for a moment at Hyein’s sharp, interrogative question, who returned to the origin.

The days of the past seemed to pass by behind my eyelids like a lantern.

Yanbian Civil War, Jang Seong-taek, Kim Young-il, Margaret Thatcher, Pacific Intelligence Community, Hak Chong-ryun, World Cup, North-South Great Compromise, Park Yi-sam, Seongsu Bridge, Zhao Ziyang, Tiananmen Massacre, Gulf War, Party Congress, Ryugyong Hotel, Japan, Great People’s Learning Center… … .

And one day, at a meal with a friend from a previous life, they even joked about exchanging stories.

When he thought of that, Junghwan was finally able to have the last courage to confess everything.

A confession of self that I had to face at some point, but only to my daughter and wife.

“I think it could be done for two reasons. The first reason is my personal reason. Your father, I had an ideal when I was younger, and the ideal leader I had hoped for was not based on blood ties other than ability. … … It’s really pathetic that we failed to achieve more than that.”

Yoo Hye-in, who seemed to criticize her father harshly just a moment ago for the word ‘failure’ that came out of Jung-hwan’s mouth, opened her mouth instead of trying to say anything more.

Does this mean that his father, General Secretary Kim Jeong-hwan, who is revered by 36 million people of the Republic and holds the right to escape from life or death of former members of the Workers’ Party of Korea, is now admitting his failure?

Even in front of your daughter?

However, Junghwan’s voice as he confided such a confession was so calm.

“I was a kid who dreamed of becoming an iron man. I believed that a political system in which one superhuman leader monopolizes power could be better for all people as a result than democracy in South Korea or the United States. Democracy is not the best political system, it is just a system of lesser evils that have emerged through the errors of all the political systems that have been implemented so far.”

“Not only my father, but many people would agree with that statement. Above all, your father himself showed it through his actions, didn’t he? Then why is it a failure?”

“It’s not that the idea is wrong. Because in 30 years, I realized that I couldn’t implement more than that, at least I wasn’t the right person.”

“However… … .”

Suddenly, Yoo Hye-in had forgotten that she had resented her father and was immersed in Jeong-hwan’s story.

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Not long ago, after the war in North Manchuria ended in an unexpected victory for North Korea, the world’s eyes were on North Korea, which leaped from a once closed communist dictatorship to a developed country in just 30 years and won a war with an empire much larger than themselves. It was a time of gathering for leaders.

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No leader in the present era would have been able to achieve the same achievements as Kim Jeong-hwan, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, under the same conditions.

Why did Kim Jung-hwan, who would be a candidate for at least three fingers, with high probability if he had to pick just one ideal iron man leader, who had been mentioned only in political science books and the tongues of luxuries, denied it himself?

“I did not foresee a great war that could change the course of the republic. There was a time when a global economic crisis was imminent, but we could not avoid it. A person who I thought would never betray me betrays me… … .”

“… … .”

“… … And in the recent war, although we eventually won, even one wrong step would have lost everything we had built up and dragged this republic into a pit of fire. National leaders are not allowed to gamble on the country’s existence. And above all… … .”

At that moment, Jeonghwan turned his gaze and looked at her, Hyein Yoo.

Her bewildered look at herself was like looking at her mother when she was young.

“… … I felt Hyein shake a lot after you were born. I almost fell into temptation. Just like Kim Il-sung, the temptation to give you my place and this Republic as a gift. And the more you grow, the more the temptation grows. … … But paradoxically, such a temptation taught me. I am not a cold-hearted, fair-minded person who can be indifferent to the love of blood and blood.”

“… … Are you really?”

“Yeah, in a nutshell, my ideal was, in a way, a product of terrifying arrogance, or the chubby cheeks of a young kid with no blood on his head. Because when you’re young, everyone has one black history. ha ha ha.”

Looking at Junghwan smiling coolly as if he had brushed it off now, Hyein Yoo felt a subtle emotion that was half confused and half understandable.

But Junghwan had a really relaxed expression on his face.

And looking at that scene, Hyein felt that her resentment towards her father, who hid her mother and her existence for decades, and sent her young daughter to a faraway place, was fading away little by little.

“And the second reason was for this republic. I didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of President Kim Il-sung. If I keep you, my daughter, in this republic, the risk of extending the de facto hereditary monarchy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is too high.”

“… … If it’s Kim Il-sung, are you talking about the person who will become my grandfather? I didn’t expect that anyone else would come out of my father’s mouth to criticize the hereditary system. The people who hold that he chose his father as his successor and inherited the post of general secretary is the best decision of all the decisions made by President Kim Il-sung in his lifetime… … .”

“No, the successor he chose was Kim Jong-il. it wasn’t me And do you know what would have happened if Kim Jong-il, not me, had risen to the rank of leader?”

“… … ?”

Jeonghwan’s tone had changed suddenly, as if he had burst out laughing, and Hyein tilted her head while bewildered for a moment.

And to her like that, Junghwan confided a story he had never told anyone or even anyone.

Another story of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in another world, not here now.

“Kim Jong-il, who has inherited his position like that, must have ruined this republic to the point where he couldn’t ruin it any more. Rather than opening up and introducing a market economy, they were obsessed with the outdated socialist-style distribution economy, but the monetary value and national production had bottomed out, and the national infrastructure would have been ruined because basic food-led initiatives could not be resolved. Then, if there was even one natural disaster, it would have been a hellish road in which a son would kill his father and a mother would sell her daughter in a state of massive starvation and semi-anarchy.”

“… … .”

“… … And even in the midst of all the misery, the few material, social, and political resources of the state that had to save the people must have been devoted solely to themselves and their vassals who were loyal to them. The geopolitical advantage of this republic would have acted as a shield that prevented less-than-foreign foreign powers from attempting even the slightest helping hand or instigating resistance. Do you think I intimidated you by exaggerating?”

“… … I’ve heard bad stories about General Kim Jong-il from tutors a few times, but… … .”

If it’s like other people, ‘How the hell do you say that? On what basis did that gloomy speculation come from?’, he did not know that Hye-in Yoo, who did not understand why Jeong-hwan had so much contempt for the hereditary system until just a moment ago, was not likely to fall off.

This was not because the other party was the general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, nor was it because he was his father.

In contrast to the so calm and calm expression on his face, Junghwan’s voice predicting possibilities that did not happen in reality was filled with conviction that did not mix with any doubts.

It’s like a person who has seen a world where such a possibility has become a reality with his own eyes.

“Aside from freedom and resistance, how can such things as quality of life and freedom of privacy be preserved in a situation where even the minimum right to live is not guaranteed? Kim Jong-il’s paranoid patient must have installed a camera in the people’s bedroom blankets. I probably couldn’t because I didn’t have the budget to buy tens of millions of cameras… … As someone said, you don’t starve because you became a slave, you become a slave if you starve. Now do you understand why I thought the hereditary system had to end for the sake of this republic?”

“Did you really decide the succession of the Republic of Korea and the Workers’ Party of Korea, who will determine the fate of these thirty-six million people based on such a prediction?”

“The future is far more terrifying than our human imagination. And it’s not a prediction. Because I’ve seen and heard it myself. Hyein, your father is actually a person who came back in time from a distant future.”

“… … I heard that you don’t have a sense of humor to joke around in a place like this, but it seems that the rumors are wrong. Isn’t the old pine cone grenade or Chukjibeop way more friendly?”

Jung-hwan told the truth, but Yoo Hye-in, who thought her father was making fun of her with a joke, smiled bitterly and responded with a light joke.

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No, in fact, yet, in the corner of her heart, the thought that her father’s foretold insight into the catastrophic future might be true, crept up in her mind.

who is her father

Among some older people, the living iron man, a mythical man who began to receive such evaluations from the great men of Baekdu, who came down to the Korean people with magical powers after receiving the spirit of Mt. Isn’t he the supreme leader?

It was his father, General Secretary Kim Jeong-hwan, who had to admire the fact that even South Korean scholars and journalists who went through objective and academic verification with half jealousy and half curiosity realized that most of their achievements were genuine, or rather, there was a sense of diminished reality.

It was not likely that such a person would joke about his succession issue in front of his daughter, whom he saw for the first time in 10 years.

And whether Hyein believed it or not, Jeonghwan’s expression and voice were still serious.

“Besides, I thought that there would always be people who would honor you and use the background of my daughter to promote their own political succession. And it actually came out. I thought it would be unfortunate for both you and the Republic.”

“… … .”

“There is a saying about power. Power is like riding on the back of a running tiger, it is easy to ride on it, but it is difficult to get to the destination without being eaten, and it is the most difficult to safely get off the tiger’s back after arriving at the destination. I raise you in the Republic… … It was like putting you on the tiger’s back all the time. It has nothing to do with you or my doctor.”

“Are you my doctor? When the hell did you ask that? Have you ever thought that I might want to inherit my father Bowie? Then my father retired safely, so he was able to watch me proudly, right? I… … Did you think that I could not go crazy with my father? You’re going to defile your father’s work?”

Hye-in Yoo, who was gradually being influenced by Jeong-hwan’s feelings and position, was close to half grieving or vomiting out the last sediment that had accumulated at the bottom of her heart.

I understand that it was inevitable, but it should have been.

One more thought, thinking about other possibilities, is that he couldn’t believe Jung-hwan’s own daughter.

But Jeonghwan looked at his daughter like that and shook his head bitterly.

“… … There was precedent. Some precedent I know.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, after thinking about it, I can’t even think of hereditary.”

Junghwan looked at his daughter with half resentment and longing in his eyes, closed his eyes and recalled the memories of the past again.

This time, not the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, but a distant past that feels only like a previous life, a memory of a different Republic of Korea in a different world that has the same name as the country that exists in this world, but is now very different.

“Once upon a time, there was a country very similar to our republic. Similar to our previous republic, we were poor, and we were swayed by the interests of neighboring powers. Then a dictator appeared and promised the people that he would make the country prosperous. In return, he took away people’s freedoms and rights for a very long time, but he kept many of his promises anyway. Until he is assassinated by his subordinate at a drinking party.”

“… … .”

“After the death of the development dictator, he was deified by his supporters, and for a very long time his shadow lived, and for a very long time he ruled the country with yin and yang. To the extent of raising one of his biological daughters to the position of head of state, regardless of her own abilities or aptitudes. After all, through a democratic election process held by the people themselves. … … But do you know how this story ended in the end?”

At that point, Junghwan opened his eyes again.

“… … How did it end?”

“It ended very badly for both herself and the country. I never wanted Hyein to take you on that train. … … this is my excuse Now this father… … Can you forgive me a little bit?”