Dear Comrade

Chapter 3. bubble (1)

Chapter 3. bubble (1)

Kim Yong-geon, director of the Asian Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, the foreign affairs department of the United Front Department and the study group leader, has been troubled lately.

At first glance, his concerns are difficult to sympathize with. He was a diplomat who was one of the elite elites recognized in North Korea. ‘ It was

Kim Yong-geon himself, with his innate smart brain and good background, had a life that was not enviable in the eyes of others because he married a maiden from a core class who was allowed to live in Pyongyang and had children, but his troubles were serious.

Broadly speaking, that concern was the future of the country, and in a narrower sense, it was also the future of Kim Yong-geon himself.

‘Huh, if I can tell even one person what I’m thinking right now… If it goes on like this, the future of our republic will be very dark.’

Kim Yong-geon smoked a cigarette and fell into these thoughts as he looked out the window of his place of work, the Association of Korean Residents in Japan, which serves as the de facto representative of North Korea to Japan, abbreviated as Cho Chongryon.

Due to the location of Cho Chongryon located in Chiyoda-ku, the heart of Tokyo, from the window he was standing in, he could see Tokyo Station as well as the headquarters of government offices, trading companies and corporations located in central Tokyo.

And as he saw the buildings, roads, and subway stations that add to their splendor day by day as if symbolizing Japan’s unprecedented boom, Yong-Gun Kim’s troubles deepened.

‘Can our current republic follow or imitate this development? How many of the party workers in Pyongyang are aware of this problem? No more communism. At this rate, it will only ruin the country’s economy and starve our compatriots.’

That was Kim Yong-gun’s concern.

He also had unparalleled pride in his country, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, until his youth when he first graduated from Kim University and entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He believed and followed President Kim Il-sung like a god, and his faith in the system of the republic was like an iron wall.

However, as I grew older and traveled around the world for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I naturally saw things that ordinary North Koreans could not see.

And finally, as he became a manager with Japan, an Asian country, and took responsibility for the operation of Chochongryon and the management of Zainichi Koreans, Kim Yong-geon’s heart was filled with only a sense of crisis, not pride.

‘Tomorrow the President’s hidden son arrives from Pyongyang. You said your name is Kim Jung-hwan? I don’t know what kind of comrade it is, but I’ve heard that it’s a young blue-eyed kid who just turned twenty, but it’d be nice if it wasn’t pampered.’

Kim Yong-gun laughed bitterly at the thought that there was one more trouble, though he was still upset.

The ideological education I received as a child and the indoctrination that North Korea is the world’s greatest and wealthiest country thanks to the leadership of President Kim Il-sung and that it is infested in South Korea began to lose its effect little by little as I went abroad.

However, his pride for the republic began to waver in earnest when he arrived in Japan, a ‘country where evil island scumbags live in swarms’, which he claimed to have persecuted and plundered the Korean people for 36 years.

At first, it was Kim Yong-geon, who arrived in the Japanese archipelago with a sense of wariness and hostility, as he had heard that these scoundrels had created enormous wealth with the wealth they had stolen from the Korean people.

– Does this mean that all of this was achieved by plundering our people? I was taught that Lee Jo (the Joseon Dynasty) was very poor at a public school in the Republic.

In the 1980s, Japanese companies dominated the world, led by electronics companies, and everywhere in the world, you could hear the story of ‘Japan as No. 1’.

Japanese companies accounted for more than half of the world’s 50 largest companies by market capitalization, and the unemployment and inflation experienced by Western countries was another story.

Although they always shout for overthrow, Kim Yong-geon and other diplomats have been hearing voices warning about the growth of Japan from the US imperialists, the capitalist capitalist bourgeoisie who in their heart thought it was impossible to win.

On the other hand, the news from the Republic, the homeland that he should be proud of, was all negative.

Today, he heard only stories of running out of oil at an industrial establishment or borrowing foreign debt from his European country, and he could see that the Soviet Union, which he had learned as ‘the country of the eldest grandson of Comrade Marx,’ was slowly faltering.

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No, even putting all these issues aside, it was already obvious to the diplomats that the republic was lagging behind, even for ordinary citizens who had no knowledge of the world outside North Korea.

I hated to admit it more than I wanted to die, but from the standard of living of ordinary people to the national productive capacity, Kim Yong-geon decided to conclude that it was true that this ‘country of inferior island monkeys’ Japan was far above the republic, at least in economic terms. reached

The problem is that it seems that few people on the mainland of the Republic are aware of the seriousness of this gap (which widens day by day).

“Comrade Manager, what should I prepare as a gift for Comrade Jeonghwan who is visiting tomorrow?”

“Prepare a Japanese cassette tape player… a Walkman. As a young comrade, I’m going to die.”

At the secretary’s words, Kim Yong-geon ordered the purchase of electronic products, which are the most popular products in North Korea these days (of course, secretly).

This product, which is nowhere to be found anywhere in the world, was also the work of the ‘100-year-old enemy of the nation’.

South Korea could copy similar items and produce them on their own, but the republic mostly imported them.

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No, not only these electronic devices, but even generators that produce electricity, the lifeline of modern countries, were mostly imported from West Germany, the USSR, and Romania (Romania).

There were times when he mentioned this situation and leaked what he was feeling to the party center, but every time he said, ‘Comrade has been stained with the corrupt capitalist bourgeoisie because he has been abroad for too long, see you at the time of mutual criticism.’ Only a cold response came back.

‘…By the way, the leader and general are not made in the Republic, they only like foreign products.’

Kim Yong-geon laughed bitterly as he thought of one of the main duties of a diplomat worker: retrieving the luxury items of the Kim family and sending them to Pyongyang.

In particular, General Kim Jong-il was a fan of Japanese sushi, so there was a time when he bought seafood and brought it to us in frozen packaging.

‘Comrade Kim Jeong-hwan, who will come to this Chongryon tomorrow, I hope he doesn’t have such a picky taste like General’s…’

However, considering that it is common for the children of diplomats to come to Japan with their parents and look at all kinds of goods that were never available in the Republic, and that Comrade Kim Jeong-hwan in question comes with a huge amount of foreign currency from the Central Bank of Korea, Kim Yong-geon’s The future was clear.

That kid, Comrade Kim Jeong-hwan, is probably coming to Japan to shop overseas.

Although we do not know the details, it was clear that the son who was favored by the leader had an accident within the republic and fled abroad.

If Comrade Kim Jeong-hwan was a side branch that was completely removed from power, perhaps for the time being, Kim Yong-geon and Chongryon employees would be left carrying the young man’s Mitsubishi Department Store shopping bag.

….But, if we had to wait a little bit, Comrade Kim Jung-hwan is said to be a gifted man in Kim University, so if he satisfies his sympathy, he might convey to the Central Party his feelings about the gap in reality even a little. I do not know.

“Where should we raise our children later… I think they will have a hard time growing up in the Republic…”

He thought that he could be sent to the kyohwaso immediately if he even got into the ears of the guards, but when the thought of Kim Dae came to mind, Yonggeon Kim muttered like that, thinking of his daughter who was far away.

His daughter, who is about the same age as Jung-hwan now, will spend her life in a future republic.

However, it was heartbreaking for Kim Yong-geon to realize that the republic where she would live is getting farther and farther away from the ‘Ground on Earth’, which she believed in when she was young.

Comrade Kim Jung-hwan, whom we will see tomorrow, must have never had such a thought, because he is of white blood.

Kim Yong-geon was pessimistic about his situation and the future of his sons and daughters and lamented that inwardly.

However, his thoughts and expectations were completely overturned as soon as he met Jung-hwan the next day.

“Welcome, Comrade Kim Jeong-hwan, this is the diplomat in charge of our Chongryon, Comrade Kim Yong-geon.”

“Comrade Jeong Hwan, a puppet of the US imperialists, welcome to the Republic of Korea’s forward base at the forefront of Japanese soil. Here is a present prepared for Comrade Jeonghwan…”

“Isn’t this a Japanese Walkman?”

Kim Jeong-hwan, who arrived in Chongryon at noon the next day, was still a young man in his 20s.

The first voice that came out of his mouth when he arrived at Kim Yong-geon’s office with a handsome female escort commander next to him was not very pleasant.

“That’s right. The latest trend these days…..”

“Hmm, your comrade manager just called this country of Japan a puppet of the U.S. imperialists, and seems to use the stuff of that puppet well?”

‘what? Have I done anything wrong?’

From the very beginning, at Jeonghwan’s sarcastic voice full of dissatisfaction, Kim Yong-geon’s heart sank as he wondered if he had even touched this young man’s heart without his knowledge.

The good thing about being a diplomat is that you can enjoy an affluent life abroad with relative freedom from the republic, but the bad thing is that news comes late from the central power structure.

‘Are you getting horns by preparing a very wet (cheap) gift? After all, if a person is enough to get permission to export foreign currency from the central bank, how can his heart be moved by such a Walkman…’

“I will correct it. Something better right now…”

“Who said that now? With the favor of the leader, the comrade is a member of the Republican cadre, eating the rust of the party, and purchasing the products of the wicked Japanese monkeys who plundered our nation for 36 years. This is anti-party act. I’m posting a report to the center right now…”

“Come on, wait a minute…”

Embarrassed by a man named Kim Jeong-hwan, who could not understand why he was angry and could not understand why he was angry, Kim Yong-geon quickly became desperate and found an excuse.

In the meantime, when someone comes from the center, I always give them the first thing they are looking for, but what is this violent reaction?

“Comrade Jeong Hwan, other overseas embassies in the Republic often use products purchased locally. Since this place actually serves as the embassy of the Republic of Japan…”

“Answer the question. And do you think other embassies and Japanese Chongryon are the same? This is nowhere else and is the heart of the Japanese imperialists who have plundered our Korean people for decades! In such a place, we should stick to only the products of our republic! If this is the republic’s forward base, as your comrade manager said, does this mean that the ideologically and armed state of the forward base is like this?”

‘What kind of coercion is this, no, rather than that, even though he has never been abroad, does he mean that the gifted man of Kim Dae is so blind in circumstances other than the republic?’

In a completely unexpected situation, Kim Yong-geon went beyond embarrassment and slowly soared to anger.

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Normally, no matter how close he was, he would never have imagined that he would dare to raise his voice to a white-haired person, but the resentment, despair, and frustration he felt yesterday remained in his heart.

Rather, he wouldn’t have been upset if he had spent a lot of foreign currency to run Ginza shopping errands as he had expected.

I was very upset that the blood and blood of the leader who was at the heart of the power of the republic, who graduated from Kim University with excellent grades, was so ignorant of the reality.

The figures of the party and the leader, blinded by the reality of the growing gap with other countries, seemed to appear in front of him in the form of a young man named Kim Jeong-hwan now.

Finally, full of anger towards the party center and disappointment in his homeland, Kim Yong-geon took off the camouflage of a smile that he had always worn.

And in the end, I ended up saying things I shouldn’t have done.

“…Comrade Jeonghwan, isn’t he being too harsh?”

“what?”

“Isn’t General Kim Jong-il also buying Japanese products and using them? Chongryon also sent Japanese products to Pyongyang several times for the general to use. So, does Comrade Jeong Hwan mean that General Kim Jong-il is also an anti-party member?”

“………………”

A sudden silence fell in Kim Yong-gun’s office.

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No one said anything.

A female military officer named Yoo Hye-rim, who was sitting next to Jeong-hwan, opened his eyes as if they were about to tear, and Kim Yong-geon’s secretary, who had seen the grim reaper in front of his eyes, became tired and white.

And finally, Jeonghwan’s mouth opened again and a hoarse voice leaked out.

“…Comrade Kim Yong-geon, what did you just say?”