1953 Bare-handed Tycoon - Chapter 403



Only Krnovel

403 – 1963, Various People

Two days after meeting with Chairman Park and his family.

The Blue House announced the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

As Chairman Park said, Jang Gyeong-sun was appointed as the new director of the Intelligence Service.

The keynote speech took a breath.

With this, Chairman Park was able to avoid Kim Hyung-wook, who would become the worst intelligence chief in history.

The keynote speech was concerned about how Kim Jong-pil would accept the appointment of Jang Gyeong-sun.

He just hoped that rumors wouldn’t spread that he had pushed Jang Gyeong-sun.

The keynote speech was that Kim Jong-pil would not return until the four major suspicions were resolved.

And it was expected that the four major suspicions would be resolved quickly before Kim Jong-pil returned to the country.

The keynote speech was correct.

The court in charge of the most serious securities scandal among the four major suspicions ruled that Yoon Eung-sang committed the crime alone.

Yoon Eung-sang said in court that he donated about 200 million won to the Central Intelligence Agency, but that it was money he voluntarily donated for the country.

The court concluded that the money donated by Yoon Eung-sang was embezzled by an agent of the Intelligence Service and not used for the election.

The military court concluded the trial by sentencing Yoon Eung-sang to one year and six months in prison and the intelligence agent who embezzled the money to three years in prison.

Kim Jong-pil’s name was not even mentioned in the Walkerhill Hotel, Saenara Motors, and pachinko machine suspicions.

In the handling of the four major suspicions, the keynote speech strongly felt Chairman Park’s hand.

Chairman Park must have wanted to protect Kim Jong-pil.

The reason the Democratic Republican Party was able to win the election was also thanks to the money that Kim Jong-pil had amassed.

The Republican Party fought the election by recruiting young, energetic, and capable people who had no money to run for office, and receiving financial support from the central party.

In contrast, the Democratic Party and the Democratic Justice Party, which lack financial resources, fought elections by attracting local leaders with abundant financial resources, as they had done since the 1950s. They had no choice because the wealthy candidates were the party’s lifeline.

As a result, differences arose in the candidates’ qualifications.

Ironically, the Democratic Republican Party was able to produce many new politicians by taking in the money that was mixed with corruption prepared by Kim Jong-pil, while the pan-Democratic Party had no choice but to field old-fashioned candidates.

Chairman Park would not have been able to kick out Kim Jong-pil, who had laid the foundation for victory in the general election.

And the moment Kim Jong-pil announced that he was involved in the four major suspicions, the revolutionary government would have collapsed, so it had to be completely blocked.

The keynote was to accept the situation as it was.

Even in the history of the original, Kim Jong-pil was able to completely escape the four major suspicions through minimizing and concealing investigations.

It was nothing new.

As the four major suspicions were quietly settled, the media began publishing articles asking, “Is this true?”

It was natural, since a huge torso was visible in the hazy fog, but all that was actually caught were pyramid-like merchants.

The keynote speech was that it would be difficult for Kim Jong-pil to return for the time being due to the boiling public opinion, so he returned to focusing on business.

On January 17, 1963, Kijo attended an event at Seoul City Hall together with Lee Man-ik, president of Cheongsan Construction.

In the square in front of Seoul City Hall, 50 relief trucks were lined up in five rows, fully loaded with relief rice.

On the top of the driver’s seat of the truck was a placard that read, “Charity and Relief Month, Relief Truck,” and on the side of the truck’s cargo area was a slogan that read, “There is no future for the country without a revolution of the heart.”

A ceremony to deliver relief rice to the poor was held, attended by figures from various walks of life, including Seoul Mayor Yoon Tae-il, Chief of Staff Kim Hyun-chul, and new Intelligence Service Director Jang Gyeong-sun.

*Segungmin (細窮民) – Poor people

Mayor Yoon Tae-il, who was nicknamed the “military uniform mayor” because he worked in his military uniform, announced that a total of 20,000 relief items, including 4,638 sacks of rice and 15,000 briquettes, will be delivered to those in need at the relief rice delivery ceremony.

Of these, 15,000 briquettes and the trucks for transporting them were provided by Cheongsan.

Mayor Yoon emphasized Seoul City’s winter preparations.

“The Seoul Metropolitan Government will continue to release government rice until the rice situation improves. And although the city has sufficient coal briquettes, if there are any manufacturers who produce poor-quality coal briquettes, we will conduct calorie tests at the district level and take administrative action against manufacturers of coal briquettes with less than 4,500 calories.”

It was a time when the main duties of the Seoul mayor during the winter were to provide food relief and heating to Seoul citizens.

Mayor Yoon repeatedly tried to calm citizens’ anxiety by saying that there was no need to worry, as rice was being shipped from local areas to Seoul in good quantities and there would be no shortage of briquettes.

Afterwards, when relief grains were delivered to the representative Se-gung-min, the Se-gung-min gathered in front of the city hall chanted “Long Live the Republic of Korea.”

Gijo felt sorry for the poor people cheering in the square on a cold winter day.

After the relief rice delivery ceremony, Kijo met with Mayor Yoon separately along with Lee Man-ik.

In the mayor’s office, where the three of them were sitting, Mayor Yoon spoke to Lee Man-ik.

“Thank you, Senior. The truck and briquettes provided by Cheongsan made this year’s Se-Gung-Min support event more substantial.”

“Mayor Yoon, why are you thanking me? You should be talking to our representative.”

“Oh, really? I got my bearings wrong. Thank you, Mr. Lee Ki-jo.”

Lee Man-ik and Yoon Tae-il were seniors and juniors of the 5th and 7th classes of the Korea Military Academy, respectively.

And it seemed like they were both former engineers and had become close friends while serving together.

“It reminds me of what I did with Mayor Yoon during the war.”

“Are you talking about when they built that wooden bridge? It was really great back then. They applied preservatives to the wood, drove piles in, and at the same time, they dug a road to facilitate the transport of materials.”

“Yeah, they used a lot of TNT to blow up the rocks at Berugogae.”

“I remember my senior slapping each soldier on the cheek at that time.”

“I’m so sorry about that time.”

“No. I knew what you were thinking, senior. You were worried that everyone would work without sleep and accidentally die while detonating the explosives, right?”

“That’s how it was back then… … .”

Lee Man-ik felt ashamed as he recalled memories from the war.

“It’s great to have you as the mayor of Seoul.”

“What? If you had continued to serve in the military, you would have become the Minister of Construction by now.”

“What about me… … .”

Lee Man-ik mumbled.

The keynote speech was that he did not like Chairman Park very much and therefore would not have participated in the May 16th Coalition.

In comparison, Seoul Mayor Yoon Tae-il was a graduate of the Manchurian Military Academy, one year senior to Chairman Park, and participated in the May 16 Movement together.

Looking at Yoon Tae-il, Kijo thought about the fact that the bloodlines of the people he was meeting now were active in his past life.

Yoon Tae-il worked together with Chairman Park in the revolution, but his nephew, Yoon Seok-yeol, worked as a special prosecutor investigating the suspicions of state affairs interference by civilians, including Choi Soon-sil, during the Park Geun-hye administration.

That wasn’t all.

Choi Jae-hyung, the son of Chief of Staff Choi Young-seop, who saved the life of Chairman Park, who almost drowned in the sea during an inspection tour of Ulleungdo Island, also became the Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection under the Moon Jae-in administration.

Many of the people that Kijo is meeting now have bloodlines connected to the core of power.

“Anyway, thank you for entrusting many of the Seoul City construction projects to Cheongsan.”

“Thank you. Isn’t Cheongsan Construction the most trustworthy construction company in Korea? Who would I trust if you, my senior, are doing the construction? Haha.”

“Thank you.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has entrusted Cheongsan Construction with the construction of Korea’s largest children’s playground in Namsan.

The construction of the was a project to build approximately 90 play facilities, a playground, flower beds, and fountains on a 3,000-pyeong site that could accommodate 1,500 people.

Mayor Yoon spoke to Kijo.

“I don’t know how long I will be the mayor of Seoul, but while I am there, I plan to make Seoul a city that can accommodate 5 million people. I have already received permission from the chairman for the urban planning project. Above all, I plan to complete the water supply and sewage facilities.”

“I look forward to working with you in the future.”

“Please take good care of me too.”

The keynote speech was that Mayor Yoon really wanted to participate in the construction of water supply and sewage facilities.

The plan would include Cheonggyecheon, and the keynote was to carry out the construction in a way that would preserve Cheonggyecheon as much as possible.

If that wasn’t possible, I wanted to preserve the historical sites of Cheonggyecheon as much as possible so that they wouldn’t be destroyed.

Kijo, who came out of Seoul City Hall with Lee Man-ik, headed to Cheongsan headquarters.

When I arrived at the headquarters, a man was waiting for me in the secretary’s office.

Sim Haeng-su came over quietly and whispered.

“Sir, please go out for a moment.”

“why?”

He said, pointing with his eyes to the back of the head of the man sitting there.

“He must be a fraud, but he is insisting on meeting the CEO. I contacted Manager Jang and asked him to kick him out.”

“Okay.”

As Kijo was quietly turning around and leaving the secretary’s office, the man sitting on the sofa turned around and shouted.

“Are you CEO Lee Ki-jo?”

The man quickly stood up and approached Kijo. When Hansoo tried to stop him, he shouted urgently.

“Sir! My name is Jang Woon-hang. I am the representative of Geumwang Gold Mine. There is a huge amount of gold buried in the Han River!”

At the same time, Jang Ma-ryang, who had come up to the secretary’s office, grabbed Jang Un-hang by the collar like lightning.

“Gold mine or whatever, come out now. If you don’t want to get beaten up until you say you want to buy something.”

As the monsoon rain dragged on, Jang Woon-hang was dragged out, but he appealed to Gi-jo.

“CEO, please listen to me for 10 minutes. It is such a waste to waste the gold buried in the Han River. I, too, want to mine gold like you and use it to develop the country.”

Kijo said to Ma-ryang, feeling sorry for his miserable appearance.

“Let go.”

“It’s like hearing something.”

“I’ll listen to you for exactly 10 minutes.”

When Jang Mal-ryang released Jang Un-hang’s collar, Jang Un-hang bowed his head repeatedly and expressed his gratitude.

“Thank you, sir.”

Instead of going into the representative’s office, Kijo sat on the sofa in the secretary’s office and listened to Jang Woon-hang’s story.

“As you know, sir, there is a huge amount of gold buried around the Han River. The gold in Mapo is only a part of it.”

The keynote was just listening.

“According to the data I have, the National Institute of Geology has determined that there is 25 grams of gold per ton of sand.”

The Mapo gold mine, which Gijo donated to the state, contained about 15 grams of gold per ton.

“During the Japanese colonial period, there was a fight between the commander of the Joseon army, a guy named Iidagaki, and the director of the mining bureau of the Government-General, a guy named Masahiro, over the gold mining rights in the Han River.”

The keynote nodded. It was true.

“And I bought the mining rights in June of 1957, but in March of 1960, a company called Gongyeongsa, which had the right to occupy the river land, started mining gold without permission. It’s so unfair.”

Kijo didn’t nod his head to those words.

“As far as I know, Gongyeongsa does not mine for gold, but rather digs up aggregate and supplies sand and gravel to the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the US military.”

Even though Kijo refuted it, Jang Un-hang did not admit it.

“That’s not it. While I’m involved in a lawsuit, Seoul Mayor Yoon Tae-il is trying to get his hands on the gold by colluding with the public interest agency. That’s why I filed a complaint against Mayor Yoon for dereliction of duty and forging official documents.”

Jang Un-hang said that if Gi-jo helped, he could win the lawsuit, and if he won, he would donate 50% of the gold extracted from the Han River to the country.

But the keynote speaker didn’t feel it was worth listening to him.

The keynote speech was reminiscent of the Han River gold dust incident that occurred in 1963.

The prosecution determined that Jang Un-hang’s claims were false based on the drilling report from the Geological Research Institute.

The report from the Geological Research Institute that Jang Woon-hang obtained was also fake.

Gold deposited along the Han River was not economically feasible at 5 to 6 grams per ton.

In 1957, Jang Un-hang fell for the conman’s trick of claiming that there was a huge amount of gold buried along the Han River and bought the mining rights for over 17 million won.

Unfortunately, he was unable to admit that he had been scammed and was fighting a losing battle.

Jang Woon-hang, who read Kijo’s expression, raised his voice even more.

“Sir! Not only gold, but also a huge amount of oil is buried under the Han River. This means that the path for South Korea to become a developed country is buried under the Han River!”

He was making increasingly absurd claims.

Kijo was about to get up from his seat and go into the CEO’s office when he suddenly became curious as to why this person had come to see him.

“But why did you come to me? There must have been someone else who could help Mr. Jang.”

“I heard that you are close with Chairman Park.”

‘Oh, no.’

Kijo was discouraged by Jang Woon-hang’s answer. It was because he thought that it would be bad if such rumors spread.

“Who said that?”

“I know a certain agent. He said it was a sure thing.”

“It’s just a rumor.”

After saying that, Kijo stood up from his seat calmly. Then he looked at Jang Ma-ryang.

As if he had been waiting for the rain to fall, he quickly lifted Jang Woon-hang up and dragged him out of the secretary’s office.

―Representative Lee! Please convey my words to Chairman Park!

Jang Un-hang’s last scream was heard through the closed door.

Kijo went into the representative’s office and sighed.

If a person named Jang Un-hang could say something like that, I thought that Kim Jong-pil, who had returned to Korea, would know more about my whereabouts.

The keynote speaker was not pleased with that fact.