Dear Comrade

＜ Chapter 22. The start of the war (4) ＞

Chapter 22. open war (4)

– How far did the launch of the Korea National Oil Corporation go? Can you tell me how long it takes from exploration to drilling to production? Is North Korea’s crude oil already on the international oil market?

– The details are a secret within the party and cannot be explained. Today’s press conference ends here.

– Boss! Chief Jang! Just one more word!

Reporters’ questions poured in to Jang Seong-taek, Ambassador Heywood, and Choi Seung-il, who turned their backs and disappeared, and the bewildered anchor said something, but now Park Se-hwang couldn’t hear it at all.

He sat down on the chair with a blank expression on his face, and all the other security staff had a sad face.

“Hahaha… North Korea is an oil-producing country… We blew me away, this…”

“…………”

“There’s going to be a riot at the Blue House… By the way, Jae-ryeong in Hwanghae? It’s not even a hundred kilometers away from Seoul at best, right? If we had pushed up a little bit more during 6.25, the resource-poor country of Korea would also become an oil-producing country… You bastards of the Chinese Communist Army like beggars! This truce line….!!! Ugh…”

“…Well, isn’t it a little too early to despair yet?”

A female employee of the National Security Agency under Park Se-hwang, who was in the briefing room, deliberately floated the fortune bright enough to overdo it, as if trying to bring up the subdued atmosphere.

“……Why do you think so?”

“Look, I heard that oil production is very long and complicated, so it can’t be that easy. Exploration is difficult, but even if there is crude oil, it will take at least five years from drilling to production… Moreover, if the oil field constructed in this way is not profitable, it can be rather damaging.

I heard there was…”

“…………”

From what I heard, it was a plausible story.

Park Se-hwang also knew about countries that had crude oil but gave up mining because the cost of digging it out was higher than the profit from selling it.

It was a realistic enough speculation that North Korea was holding such a noisy event and that it was deliberately exaggerating the oil fields that lacked profitability so that it could easily receive the capital investment necessary for reform and opening up.

But even so, this ominous feeling…

‘It’s because it’s not the first time I’ve been hit in the back by the general secretary. I’m already starting to miss Kim Jong-il for some reason…’

Rather, it was Park Se-hwang, who could not help thinking that Kim Jong-il’s continued sitting at the top of North Korea would have been more beneficial for them and the Republic of Korea in the long run. And on the screen, Jang Seong-taek and Choi Seung-il, who left the reporters behind and fervently boarded the exclusive vehicle, were also talking about the general secretary in question.

“I did what I agreed to. But really, are you really not going to tell me where this huge… this huge amount of money is coming from?”

When Jang Seong-taek grunted, showing that he was uncomfortable that he had not heard any information about this incident, Choi Seung-il put a smile on his tough face and slightly lowered his head.

“I want to tell you too, but as you know, the general secretary told me to keep it a top secret for the time being. I will tell you directly from his mouth soon, so please don’t be offended by your comrade.”

“Hmm… By the way, is there any oil in Jae-ryeong?”

“Not there. According to what the general secretary said after receiving the data from the British, ‘It takes a long time to produce, and if not the best, the reserves and quality are quite good.

“Heh heh heh…. Then our republic is truly a flower-watching party, and the young South Koreans who are helping out these days are also beating the ground while listening to this news, aren’t they?”

Jang Seong-taek, who knows the value of oil in modern society, already had a smile on his lips, but Choi Seung-il shook his head.

“But at the same time he said this. ‘Resources are a blessing, but countries that depend on them will be destroyed in the blink of an eye when those resources are gone. Although this is the age of oil, our republic must prepare measures so that it can survive the post-oil age.”

“…that sounds completely unfamiliar. By the way, where the hell is the general secretary? You had such high expectations for the establishment of Peony Holdings, so I thought you would definitely come to today’s event even if you don’t know about other events…”

In fact, what Jang Seong-taek just pointed out was a car that Choi Seung-il was also curious about.

I knew where the general secretary was.

The problem was that, as Jang Seong-taek just said, I did not understand why the republic went there, leaving the huge event of the launch of Peony Holdings, the signal that the republic is actually transitioning to a state capitalist system.

Choi Seung-il, who was secretly confident that he would become the general secretary in the upcoming body system of the republic, was also confused because he did not understand the general secretary’s actions.

“That’s… As far as I know, the general secretary is in Nampo today.”

“lamp? Why the hell are you going there on this important day?”

“I heard that it was to provide field guidance to the technical comrades who are leaving the republic today and to say goodbye to the comrades who are leaving the country. In order to transfer the technology to the field, which was one of the conditions for the establishment of the joint venture, they are going to train in an oil field owned by British Petroleum in Kuwait for one year.”

“…that doesn’t make any sense. For such a thing, the general secretary himself… Shouldn’t it be just a matter of sending one of the party cadres instead?”

Seeing Jang Seong-taek tilting his head while making a reasonable point, Seung-il Choi could not hide his doubts.

In the meantime, personally and publicly, he knew best how long the general secretary had contributed to the establishment of this Peony Holdings, who helped the process.

But why the hell do you mean going somewhere else on the day that the process actually bears fruit?

‘Is there something important I don’t know about that genetic training?’

Choi Seung-il was only making a vague guess like this, but for now, he had no choice but to wait until the truth was revealed. “Second, general secretary! Comrade general secretary! You really have come!”

“where? Where is the general secretary comrade?”

“there! over there! Oh man, to see that person with my own eyes in my lifetime…”

“From Pyongyang to here just to see things like us… My dear, I have no time to die now.”

Meanwhile, as Jeonghwan from Nampohang, far away from Pyongyang, stood on the podium, the technicians in dirty and wretched work clothes burst into laughter all at once as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.

Choi Seung-il’s words that the people were already calling for the national independence of Jeong-hwan were not false.

Most of the people who looked at him suspiciously for the first year or so at the appearance of Jeong-hwan, a white-headed pedigree who looked completely fat right after his death, began to sincerely praise the new general secretary, Jeong-hwan, as they watched the republic change in the meantime.

Fair wage payment for labor mobilization, partial liberalization of broadcasting, abolition of correctional centers, and shortening of conscription period were all policies implemented by Jeong-hwan’s political needs, but as a result, the people felt that their lives had improved significantly over the past year.

After standing on the podium for a while and watching the Republican engineers looking up to him while enjoying the sea breeze of Nampo, Jeonghwan opened his mouth.

“Proud comrades of skilled workers of the Republic! From now on, the comrades will leave their hometown to learn the technology to mine oil, the foundation on which the Korean people will stand tall in the world and self-reliance.”

“……”

“It is with a heavy heart that I am saluting the comrades who are heading to Yiyeokmanli from their beloved hometown to fulfill the Republic’s proud revolutionary cause of voluntary self-reliance in accordance with the Party’s orders. However, they are convinced that the blood and sweat of their comrades will be the source of wealth for this republic and future descendants.

I want you to work hard at the forefront with O. Please come back healthy, comrades!”

“Long live Comrade General Secretary!”

“hurray! Long live Comrade General Secretary! Long live the Workers’ Party of Korea! Long live the Republic!”

Hundreds of engineers shouting hurrahs filled Nampo Port.

Some of them were truly moved and wept.

But what was even more surprising happened immediately after that, when General Secretary Jeong Hwan came down from the podium and started shaking hands with each of the technicians.

“Cho, comrade general secretary! How can a comrade himself…”

“Get out of the way, I want to see each and every face of those comrades with my own eyes.”

“But… it can be dangerous. First of all, conduct a preliminary investigation with the officers of the escort unit…”

“They are shouting hurray for me, so what’s the danger? Are you going to disobey the general secretary now?”

“Oh, no!”

Caught by Jeonghwan’s sudden action, the secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, the officers in charge of Nampo Port, and the attendants stopped him one after another, but Jeonghwan ignored him.

Eventually, Jeonghwan approached the technicians and grabbed each one of their stained hands and shook hands. “Cho, comrade general secretary! I’m a dirty person, so I got a lot of coal ash on my hands, so please understand…”

“This hand is the precious hand that created the republic, would I care about that coal ash? Have a good trip!”

“Cho, Comrade General Secretary…!!!”

Eventually, as he had promised, Jeonghwan shook hands with the hundreds of engineers who had gathered to leave for training in Nampo Port that day.

Thanks to this, the departure time of the ship to Kuwait was much later than planned, but neither Jeong Hwan-do nor the engineers cared about it.

And when the sun finally went down to the horizon, the ship was able to depart for the Middle East.

“Goodbye! Thank you, General Secretary!”

“This grace is a blessing in disguise, even in death I haven’t forgotten it! You must learn not to miss a single letter, and it has been helpful to this republic!!”

“……”

Jeonghwan had been watching for a long time as the shape of the ship that had left far away and finally disappeared below the horizon.

And finally, when the secretaries on board were at a loss for what to do, he got into the backseat of a private car.

“Comrade General Secretary, you have a very dark expression on your face. Can you tell me the reason?”

“Captain Yu.”

“Yes?”

“I should go in and have a drink today.”

To Yoo Hye-rim, who tilted her head unaware of the English language, Jung-hwan said only that and closed her eyes.

One by one, the faces of the technicians who were waving their hands carefully, with tears in their eyes, were still pleasing to the eye.

According to his prediction, some of them may be injured, or they may die in their hometown and return to their hometown corpses.

Although he understood that such a strategy was absolutely necessary in his head, even Jeonghwan, who didn’t blink an eye at most things, could not feel so good, thinking that he was using them without knowing anything.

‘That’s the weight of a leader. It’s a burden I have to bear anyway.’

But what was even more painful was the fact that I couldn’t tell anyone about these worries or anguish.

He’s the only one in the world right now about what’s going to happen to Kuwait in about three months, and the fact that he’s got the technicians half-limbed.

‘Kyungsoo, at this time of the day, you’re still a baby drinking formula…’

Thinking about it that way, I felt more lonely.

However, Jeong-hwan shook his head and instructed Yoo Hye-rim to shake off all those feelings and head to Pyongyang. And three months after that, on August 2, 1990, 300,000 Iraqi forces led by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein raided Kuwait.

The Kuwaiti army was quickly annihilated, a puppet government was established, many Kuwaiti civilians and workers were killed in the massacre by Iraqi military and police while resisting the Iraqi army, and foreigners who did not leave in time were taken hostage or wounded.

Among them, one of the primary targets of the Iraqi army was the oil fields in Kuwait located in the border disputed area where the international community paid the most attention.

And among the workers who were taken hostage while working at the oil field, there were 682 North Korean workers who were receiving technical training at British Petroleum, a British oil company that was a former colony of Kuwait .