Chapter 83: The Summit of Secrets and Shifting Landscapes
“We received plant supply requests from 56 countries. We have signed formal supply contracts with 10 countries and the rest are at the MOU stage.”
“Are there any places that have annoying conditions?”
“Mostly Southeast Asia. There are many inquiries about whether they can pay in kind instead of money.”
Yu Ji-ha flipped through dozens of documents with a troubled expression.
It was a bit… unreasonable to hope to receive a nuclear fusion plant while paying with chickens.
“Tell them we’ll accept it if they add 30% of the market price to 5% of the group’s profit margin.”
It was going to North Korea anyway, so it didn’t make much difference.
Thanks to the huge amount of money coming into South Korea like this, the economy was in a great boom.
The construction companies were struggling to find workers to send abroad, and many small and medium-sized enterprises were also busy producing equipment for the plants.
Silla Group acquired only the department in charge of nuclear power business from Hansung Group.
The facilities were almost similar except for the nuclear fusion reactor.
Yu Ji-ha tilted his head as he looked at the site occupied by the nuclear fusion plant to be built in the South Sea.
“Do we have to build such a huge power plant just to produce 1GW?”
“We have to boil water and spin turbines.”
“Well, I guess it helps the economic cycle in its own way…”
He couldn’t help but smirk as if he was throwing dirt back into the hole he dug out.
“Master, we have received a proposal from Chairman Wang Xi’an.”
“What is it?”
“He suggested a summit meeting on the condition that they will change they’re name to the Chinese People’s Federation and liquidate Kim Jong-un’s assets and provide us secretly.”
“Chinese People’s Federation or Chinese People’s Republic, it’s all the same. How much are his assets?”
“It seems to be a little over 30 billion yuan.”
“Who would stick that on their nose? Tell them to come up with a 10 trillion won investment plan for North Korea. Add the liquidated assets separately.”
“Yes.”
Whether it was effective or not, Wang Xi’an entered South Korea before September ended.
What was waiting for him at the airport was not a grand welcome ceremony or a guard of honor, but a few cars including the secretary general.
“I heard that South Korea’s etiquette has been greatly simplified, but I didn’t expect it to be this much…”
Russia and the US also received the same etiquette, so it could be considered fair in some ways.
Anyway, after all these twists and turns, Wang Xi’an was able to face Yu Ji-ha one-on-one.
He knew that if he missed this opportunity, it would be over for China.
That’s why he made a radical proposal from the start.
“I’ll give you Mount Baekdu.”
The mountain called Baekdu Mountain in Korea and Changbai Mountain in China.
Regardless of its name, this mountain was currently owned by Korea and China half and half.
Wang Xi’an’s finger drew a new border line.
It meant giving up the land from Junggang-eup to Mount Baekdu.
The area was almost comparable to Chungcheongbuk-do, but Yu Ji-ha was not satisfied.
“I want this much.”
Yu Ji-ha’s finger added a new line to it.
It was a line that stretched from Junggang-eup to Russia.
Wang Xi’an’s expression hardened.
“…This land is as big as Hamgyeongbuk-do. You want this?”
“I’ll lift the black metal sanctions and help you mine the black metal in the Taiwan Strait through negotiations with Taiwan.”
China had to pay several times more than what they asked for if they wanted something from Yu Ji-ha.
They thought they could form a partnership with Silla Group with 100 billion yuan and land, but that was just their delusion.
The funny thing was that China had no choice but to accept it because they had no way out.
‘How did it come to this…’
The good old days when they were called G2 with the US and aimed for the hegemony of the world were gone.
Looking back now, it was fatal when the meteorite fell before the war.
The situation was so twisted that he wondered if some transcender had pushed China to choose war.
As he thought up to here, Wang Xi’an suddenly felt suffocated.
If lifting the black metal sanctions costs this much, what do I have to give up for a nuclear fusion power plant?
The only thing that was certain was that there was no future without accepting these unreasonable demands.
Wang Xi’an knew better than anyone else that it was true, as he was the de facto leader of China.
“Fine. Let’s finalize the border line during the working-level consultation.”
“You can invest in Korea now.”
Of course, lifting the black metal sanctions didn’t mean they could produce black metal batteries.
They had to build a factory in Korea to process black metal.
He couldn’t help but resent the old bureaucrats who had threatened and kidnapped him in the past.
He would have preferred to be treated like the US or Russia, but he couldn’t even imagine what he had to give up in that case.
The two continued to discuss after that, but they didn’t reach any significant agreement.
The only thing they agreed on was to lift the black metal sanctions and give up the deposits in the South China Sea in exchange for mediating the deposits in the Taiwan Strait.
As a result of this summit, Korea gained a new land of 20,000 square kilometers.
Yu Ji-ha received tremendous support for expanding his territory through this summit.
—It’s impossible to expand the territory in this day and age, but he did it…
—He invested all the money from the nuclear fusion plant orders and the money deposited from China into North Korea. He’s using his fortune to normalize North Korea.
—Strictly speaking, it’s his personal money and Silla Group’s money… He’s really amazing.
From Yu Ji-ha’s perspective, these opinions were somewhat puzzling.
It was his own thing, whether it was the Korean Peninsula or Silla Group.
“It’s just moving money from one pocket to another. I don’t understand.”
“Don’t they think dictatorship will end someday?”
“Well, I guess so.”
It would be like that in about 70 years.
…
The next leader Yu Ji-ha met was President Putin.
The two leaders had tentatively agreed on many things, but they seemed to want to finalize them at this opportunity.
The scale of the working-level staff was huge, and there was even a reorganization of the Russian government before the meeting, which made the US worried.
—What does it mean that the Far North Arctic Development Department was abolished?
-Following Belarus, Ukraine is also showing signs of integrating economically with Russia instead of clinging to the EU.
-Russia has also conducted a large-scale military exercise in Eastern Europe. It is not unrelated to this series of events.
In Western Europe, there was a fuss that Russia’s advance had finally become a reality.
They made a fortune with black metal and were not satisfied with it, but dreamed of restoring the Soviet Union.
But it was almost impossible unless they asked for annexation like Belarus did, and unless the US gave up on Europe.
But at this point, a variable appeared.
It was clear that Russia would make a huge proposal at this summit with Korea.
There were various speculations about what it was, but the claim that it was land was dominant.
—Yu Ji-ha seems to like land. It’s a result of his preference that he absorbed North Korea and expanded his territory through negotiations with China.
—Maybe he’ll give up Vladivostok. It’s not a land that has no connection with Korea.
—In return, Russia will try to get full cooperation, but it won’t be easy.
The US intelligence agencies came up with these speculations and President McKinley shook his head.
“His greed is not ordinary. He won’t be satisfied with just Primorye.”
“Do you think he’s thinking of Sakhalin?”
“Well, I don’t know unless I go to the meeting place myself.”
Vladivostok had a population of over 600,000 and there was even a base for the Russian Pacific Fleet nearby.
At first glance, it seemed unlikely that they would give up their naval base.
But on the other hand, they had to think about what Russia wanted so much that they would give up their naval base.
President McKinley checked the structure of Terra Island taken by reconnaissance satellites.
“I can’t help but admire it every time I see it. When was this section built?”
“It went up in two days. It seems to be a defense battery.”
“A defense battery means a railgun, but isn’t it too big?”
“It could be a super-sized railgun…”
The US agreed to cede Terra Island to Yu Ji-ha and provide security for a year.
It was good for both Yu Ji-ha and the US, because they could check what had changed around Terra Island as a result.
According to the combination of satellite images and close-up shots, a huge city was being built on Terra Island.
And it was a city made of black metal.
President McKinley tapped his desk nervously.
“Just dismantling that section would exceed a year’s worth of black metal we mine. I can’t even estimate how much it is.”
“It’s very difficult to estimate the exact amount of black metal. It’s growing all the time.”
“Even so, isn’t it too much? It’s like it was prepared for him.”
“Or maybe he made it.”
“Is he really an alien?”
He looked like a Korean on the outside, but there were too many suspicious points about him.
His secretary, who always followed him around, was a mysterious person who had no trace of life except for graduating from college.
“He has a social security number, but no friends, nothing. It’s like…”
He fell from the sky.
There were many doubts, but he couldn’t take any action right away.
He was an ally for now.
“But the secret meeting with Russia is shaking my determination… I hope he doesn’t cross the line.”
The US had not given up on Korea yet and drew a line in front of them.
They recognized Korea as a power in East Asia, but they did not accept it beyond the Pacific.
And they could tolerate economic cooperation with Russia, but they didn’t want them to get too close.
The Democrats were already opposing him, passing sanctions resolutions and saying that his actions were very worrying.
If he had been a clear ally, they would have let it go, but his behavior so far was ambiguous.
President McKinley hoped he would make a wise choice.
“When my term ends, the Democrats will have a president. Please don’t provoke them.”
And a few days later, President Putin left Korea with a satisfied face.
The working-level staff fainted during the overnight discussion, and there was a report that said so.
And one day in late October, the map of the Kremlin changed slightly.
Almost at the same time, the map of the Korean Peninsula in the Cheong Wa Dae office changed a lot.
But this information was not disclosed to the world.
South Korea had enough to do with normalizing North Korea.
As a result of the world’s efforts to inject deworming drugs and dispatch doctors, the residents were barely able to get out of the parasite danger a little bit.
Essentials such as food were also coming in, so they were not in immediate danger of life.
But the real challenge was yet to come.
Many of the residents showed symptoms of drug addiction.
The drugs in North Korea were commonly called baekdo-raji and bingdu, meaning opium and methamphetamine.
They were so widespread that even children could easily access them.
The guerrilla activities hidden in the rural areas were also serious.
But these problems could be solved over time.
According to Arma’s calculations, if Pyongyang was normalized, the surroundings would naturally stabilize.
Yu Ji-ha called the construction company representatives and drew a line on the map of the south of the Daedong River in Pyongyang.
“From here to here, clear everything and push it away.”
Boom!
The buildings collapsed one after another as the explosives detonated.
Pyongyang began to be flattened.
…