1979, Manager Kim is Inheriting Dictatorship! - Chapter 128



Only Krnovel

Episode 128

‘Since when did it start… … .’

Even Heo Min-seong himself didn’t know very well.

There was definitely a time when he was a truly passionate and pure prosecutor.

Everyone around him liked and relied on him.

-Hey, there’s no one better than Prosecutor Heo! Just look at this month’s performance. Because of Prosecutor Heo, criminals can’t even think about committing a crime!

-Heo Min-seong is amazing! How on earth did you get that guy in this time? As expected, our classmates said that you have to keep the center.

-Senior! You are truly amazing! Our riders only look up to you. I always respect you!

Everyone liked him, whether he was a senior, a peer, or a junior.

The prosecutor named Heo Min-seong was full of passion and would take action against injustice no matter how high up the hierarchy he was in.

President Kim Jung-guk said while looking at Heo Min-seong, who was lost in thought.

“I remember Chief Prosecutor Huh 20 years ago, not like he is now, who worked for personal or organizational glory. He was literally someone who always struggled to keep his duty as a prosecutor.”

“… … .”

Heo Min-seong approaches the mirror in his office without answering and looks at his face.

Since I haven’t looked in the mirror often for some time, I didn’t really know how my face had changed.

Wrinkles and freckles.

And eyes filled with something greedy.

‘Is this my face… … .’

Heo Min-seong is confused by his appearance in the mirror.

It wasn’t just a confusion about getting older and getting old.

The person in the mirror was not the passionate prosecutor Heo Seong-min who wanted to bring in all the so-called criminals of the past and achieve social justice.

What remained in the mirror was just an ugly old man full of greed and only caring about his own glory.

Heo Min-seong looks into the mirror and asks President Kim Jung-guk.

“Mr. President, what was I like 20 years ago?”

President Kim answers him by recalling his memories.

“I think it was 20 years ago, shortly after he became president. Wasn’t it when he gathered a number of prosecutors and listened to their stories? Wasn’t one of them Chief Prosecutor Huh?”

Heo Min-seong nods.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“The President Huh I remember was a passionate person. He was a tremendous person who would attack me, the president, whenever he saw injustice. Come to think of it, I remember you almost getting dragged out after suddenly shouting in the middle of a debate that you were exposing your superior’s corruption.”

“Now that I think about it, that’s what happened.”

Heo Min-seong falls into thought again.

‘Since when did it start?’

I myself don’t know when I became like this.

It wasn’t like I directly received a bribe or anything like that.

But as he grew older and gained more positions, he began to engage in illicit legal dealings and even began to accept requests from retired senior prosecutors that he would have ignored in the past.

-Prosecutor Huh, let’s just let this case slide. You can cover it up. What’s good about the prosecution? You pull each other along, right? Prosecutor Huh, you’re not going to be a prosecutor for a thousand years. If you can just solve this case, I’ll push you forward! Please.

-Prosecutor Huh. Yes, I thought well. How long will you be so stubborn? Just close your eyes and let it go this once. Don’t worry. I told you that no one will be harmed by this, right?

It was a request from senior lawyers who were from the so-called preferential prosecution service.

At first, he naturally refused, but due to pressure from those around him, Heo Min-seong eventually started to accept various requests.

And every time he granted such a request, his status within the prosecution rose.

Promotions that were not possible even when 24 hours a day were not enough to catch criminals were achieved so easily.

Just once.

Just this once.

Just one more time.

I have been deceiving myself with these words over and over again.

I consoled myself by saying that I could go up a little higher and change things, but before I knew it, the higher I went, the more I became a monster, no different from the seniors who had asked me to do the same.

‘Have we gone too far?’

Heo Min-seong, who had been quiet, finally opens his mouth.

“…What should I do?”

“Well, you can do whatever you want. If what you want is to fight me to the end, then do that. Or if it’s another way, then do that. But I’m sorry too. If I had resolved this issue a little sooner, Prosecutor Heo Min-seong, who had dreams of a great career in his youth, might still be here.”

Heo Min-seong smiles slightly at my answer.

He looked relieved by my story.

The lust disappears from his eyes.

His face was no longer that of an old man filled with greed and longing only for glory.

Although it was blurry, his face clearly showed the look of Inspector Heo Min-seong from his younger days.

Heo Min-seong thinks about something for a moment, then gets up from his seat and bows his head to me.

“Mr. President, let’s go in for today.”

He didn’t say anything, but I felt like I knew what he was going to do now.

“Yes. Oh, by the way, I said I would give you this.”

As he was leaving, I took out a can of tea I had bought in Baekdu Mountain from a drawer in my office and gave it to him.

“Thank you. I will drink it. However, I am not sure if I can drink it all. And, Mr. President… … .”

Heo Min-seong hesitates as if he has something left to say.

“Yes. Go ahead.”

“It’s a little embarrassing to say this, but I’m so glad that you are the president of the Republic of Korea. If you weren’t the president, I probably would have just lived my whole life as a greedy person and died as just that kind of person.”

I saw him off without saying a word.

After a while, Senior Civil Affairs Secretary comes in and reports to me.

“Mr. President, the investigation into Nam Ki-chul and Heo Min-seong is almost finished. The police will soon… … .”

I shook my head and answered.

“No. Now, I don’t think that’s necessary. There’s no need to investigate that any further.”

* * *

[Former Prosecutor General Heo Min-seong. After retirement, he confessed to pressuring the prosecution and the court by providing various benefits through his personal connections. – Tongil Ilbo]

[Former President Heo Min-seong. He disclosed all the legal fees he had received so far. He announced that he would donate all the legal fees he had received after retirement. However, he revealed that this was a separate issue from punishment, drawing attention to the background. -KBC]

[With Deputy Chief Prosecutor Nam Ki-chul of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and former Prosecutor General Heo Min-seong turning themselves in, the prosecution’s resistance to the president’s emergency measures has effectively disappeared. – KBC]

[President Kim Jung-guk Carries Out Key Personnel Changes in Prosecutors’ Office. More than Half of the Personnel Changes Are Prosecutors from Local Areas. – Hansung Ilbo]

[Investigation of most Liberty Korea Party members, except one or two, concluded with no charges. – Tongil Ilbo]

[The Gongmin Party also agrees, and the bill to ban retired prosecutors from working as lawyers passes overwhelmingly with 400 votes. – Tongil Ilbo]

[Former Supreme Court Justice Yang Tae-goo arrested. Charges include pressuring some judges to review warrants and make various rulings.]

As Prosecutor Nam Ki-chul and former Chief Prosecutor Han collapsed, there was no one left in the prosecution to hold the center and fight, and as the upper echelons were largely replaced, the atmosphere of resistance to the death gradually waned.

“How is the atmosphere these days?”

I put down the newspaper I was reading and asked Prosecutor General Kang Sung-min.

“Yes. Overall, everyone is now accepting it. Since the people who led the mood are gone and many of the higher-ups have been replaced, the overall mood is that there is nothing we can do. Of course, there were quite a few people who were in favor of this measure from the beginning.”

Not all inspectors opposed this measure and the bill.

However, the voices of the prosecutors who were in favor were buried among the voices of the prosecutors who were against it.

After President Kang Sung-min finished answering, he took out an envelope from his suit pocket.

[Resignation]

“I came to give you this.”

What President Kang handed over was none other than a letter of resignation.

He bowed his head and spoke to me.

“I apologize. I take full responsibility for this situation. It is my fault for not being able to properly manage even one member of the organization under me as the Prosecutor General. I will step down. I am truly ashamed, Mr. President.”

I picked up the resignation letter he handed me and handed it back to him.

“Put it in.”

But he did not accept the resignation letter I handed him and spoke again.

“Mr. President, I am not qualified to be the president… … .”

“Oh my, you’re stubborn anyway.”

I took out a lighter and burned my resignation letter, saying:

“Chief Kang, the prosecution needs someone like you. If you, instead of Nam Ki-chul, had raised the rebellion on behalf of the prosecution during this incident, I would have been in trouble too. But you didn’t. Even though this measure clearly reduced your income after retirement by a huge margin.”

“That, that’s… That’s why I always thought that way. I thought it was absurd that the sentences were decided based on who hired a better lawyer rather than the punishment for the crime committed. It’s not because there’s something wrong with me.”

“That’s right. This situation has come about because many people in the prosecution’s higher-ups thought otherwise. That’s why I think Chief Prosecutor Kang should stay in his position a little longer. Please stay in his position a little longer. And please create more people like you who work quietly within the prosecution.”

President Kang thinks for a moment and then bows his head.

“Okay, I understand. I am lacking, but I will do my best.”

“Please take care of me in the future, President Kang.”

* * *

[Singer Hong Sang-deuk was sentenced to 7 years in prison for drug use, H Group’s third-generation Yoo Tae-jung, the planning director, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for drunk driving and hit-and-run injury. With recent unusual rulings being made against these high-ranking officials, there is analysis that the law prohibiting preferential treatment is having an effect. More than 90% of the public supports this preferential treatment law… ]

After the bill on preferential treatment for high-ranking officials was passed, the results of criminal trials against high-ranking officials in society began to come out one by one, and people were surprised by the unexpectedly high sentences that were handed down each time.

A man watching the news on TV in a bar exclaims in admiration.

“Wow, if Hong Sang-deuk is sentenced to 7 years in prison, doesn’t he have to watch two more World Cups before he gets out?”

“That’s right. Well, if you think about it, that guy has already been on marijuana before. This time, he’s on cocaine, so he should come out at least that much.”

The man speaks while pouring down a glass of soju.

“Being so popular and rich is useless now.”

The friend sitting across from me also pours a drink and speaks.

“That’s normal. It’s not normal for someone with a lot of money to commit the same crime and then get released on probation while saying things like, ‘I’ll be forgiven by contributing to the national economy,’ or ‘I’ll be forgiven by making music.’ If you commit a crime, you should be punished by the law. Why is their work a substitute for punishment?”

“That’s true. The world has changed a lot.”

People are starting to realize that the days when people could get away with committing crimes because they had money are slowly passing.

* * *

“I hereby declare that the motion of no confidence in the Cabinet has been passed.”

Although the Democratic Party of Japan members protested vehemently, the motion of no confidence in the cabinet had already been passed.

“This is invalid, invalid!!”

“Come down now!!”

Some of the coalition parties that Prime Minister Hosokawa was in were dissatisfied with Prime Minister Hosokawa’s personnel decisions, so they left the coalition and, together with the Liberal Democratic Party, passed a vote of no confidence in the cabinet.

Prime Minister Hosokawa responded to the vote of no confidence in his cabinet by dissolving the House of Representatives.

Prime Minister Hosokawa’s popularity was decent.

Thanks to good negotiations, especially in the 7th block, the Japanese economy was cruising for the first time in a long time.

But the problem was the composition.

Japanese politics was still dominated by conservatives, and the betrayals of other coalition parties were extremely painful.

In the end, the coalition party with the Liberal Democratic Party won a majority of seats, and Prime Minister Hosokawa was forced to resign.

I clicked my tongue as I read the newspaper article reporting that Prime Minister Hosokawa had ultimately resigned.

“Tsk… … .”

‘I’m tired. Prime Minister Hosokawa was a man of common sense… ‘

-Tiring! Tiring!

Then a phone call comes into the office.

The caller was none other than the Korean Embassy in Japan.

“Mr. President, this is Ambassador Han Seok-jun.”

“Ambassador Han, it’s been a while. What brings you here all of a sudden?”

An ambassador pauses for a moment and then speaks to me.

“Mr. President, the new Japanese Prime Minister has requested that we sell our shares in UY Mobile Phones, a company that has advanced into Japan… … .”