1979, Manager Kim is Inheriting Dictatorship! - Chapter 142



Only Krnovel

After the World Cup, an era that can be called the IT era has begun all over the world.

The era of smartphones, which was originally supposed to begin after the launch of QPL in 2007, was brought forward by five years thanks to Jobs’ early return and Korea’s early development of semiconductors.

In this history, too, the starting point was Jobs.

January 1, 2002.

At the open house, Jobs unveiled QPL’s smartphone, and as people began to take a serious interest in smartphones thanks to the advertisement during the World Cup, Samsung also unveiled its smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy, in November 2002.

Several companies followed suit and tried to release smartphones, but smartphones released by companies in other countries that did not have access to Korea’s key technologies were still at the level of children’s toys.

Unlike the early smartphone market where many companies emerged and fought, the smartphone market in this history was divided into two: Qplus and Samsung.

However, apart from this, there was one major difference from the original history.

Originally, it was QPL that was the biggest competitor to Samsung in the Korean smartphone business in history.

But now Qple was no longer a competitor to Samjung.

In fact, Qple and Samjeong have become companies close to partnerships.

This was possible because the Korean government held a significant stake in QPL.

Currently, the Korean government holds control over the QPL in terms of its governance structure.

Although Jobs was in charge of management, it was clear that the ruling structure was the Korean government.

If I wanted to, I could kick out Jobs any time.

Although Qple was listed on NASDAQ, Qple was actually a Korean company.

That is why the Korean government continued to share technology between QPL and Samjeong.

Thanks to this, Samjung and Qple have become virtually brother companies.

Because of this dominance structure, most of the profits from smartphone sales came to Korea.

Many of Qupple’s factories were located in Korea, and a significant portion of its profits went to the Korean government.

And it wasn’t just the Qupple.

Most IT companies, including Nano Soft and MVDIA, were similar.

The Korean government owned a significant stake, and so much of the profits flowed into Korea.

And because of this, there has been talk recently, especially in the political world, about what to do about IT companies that Korea has control over.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there was a special way.

It was because Korea’s international influence had risen too high to allow these companies to be kicked out simply because of their high Korean dominance.

However, it was impossible to bring down Korea in a way similar to the Plaza Accord that was used against Japan in the past.

First of all, the Korean won was already used as a common currency in the Asian Economic Union, and had a level of influence close to that of the dollar, although not quite at that level.

America needed a game changer.

Because of this problem, President Bush gathered his staff and held meetings every day.

Today, President Bush gathered his staff and cabinet members together to devise countermeasures.

Bush asks his Cabinet members with an impatient look on his face.

“What have you been doing until now, when Qple has passed and all the other companies have passed! Is there really no way out?”

The fact that the Korean government is at the top of the governance structure of IT companies like Qupple was a widely known fact even in the United States.

But people didn’t know exactly how much Korea had.

That would be the case, as there were shares owned in the name of the National Pension Service or sovereign wealth funds, but it was difficult to accurately determine the ownership relationship for about half of them.

That’s why even the United States has had a hard time understanding this issue until now.

However, since the Bush administration came to power, it has been several years since the Korean government confirmed the percentage of shares held by each of the top 100 companies in the United States.

And a recent report had some shocking results.

The Korean government holds approximately 17% of the shares.

This figure is not calculated based on the percentage of shares held by Koreans or Korean companies, but only the percentage of shares held by the Korean government.

One group owned a ridiculous 17% stake in the top 100 companies in the United States.

And this ratio rises to an even more absurd figure if limited to IT companies.

If things continued this way, it was clear that the entire United States would end up being eaten up by Korea, which would be ridiculous.

The Secretary of State offers his opinion cautiously.

“What if we pressure the Korean government to sell its stake?”

“Putting pressure on the Korean government?”

The Secretary of State nods and continues:

“Yes. Korea’s weakness is that we rely on exports to the US for a large part of our economy. What if we threaten to raise tariffs on Korean products significantly if we don’t reorganize our stake?”

That made sense.

Although Korea’s imports from the United States were small, its exports to the United States were larger than expected.

Since South Korea exported more than 10 times more to the United States than it imported, the United States had a significant trade deficit with Korea.

“Hmm, tariff retaliation.”

The friction with Korea was actually not what Bush wanted.

President Kim Jong-guk had a better relationship with his father than anyone else.

So, I wanted to avoid friction as much as possible, but if the Korean government has this much capital in the United States, it’s a different story.

Clearly, the tariff retaliation that the Secretary of State mentioned would be an attack that would hurt Korea, which exports a lot to the United States.

There is just one big problem.

“But then what about the crude oil and natural gas we are purchasing from Block 7?”

In diplomacy with Korea, the resources that all countries have had no choice but to take advantage of recently were those coming from these seven mining areas.

Korea has been providing its surplus resources to countries friendly to it or countries with which it has ties at much cheaper prices than OPEC.

Because the quality and other factors were much better than those of OPEC, crude oil and natural gas imported from Korea were becoming increasingly indispensable to the economies of the importing countries.

However, this has created a serious problem for countries importing underground resources from Korea.

The problem is that if a conflict arises with Korea, it will cause a huge economic burden.

Without going too far, Japan was a representative example not long ago.

Korea currently has an overwhelming position as a resource exporter, to the point that Japan’s government changed again because of this incident.

If South Korea were to cut off its crude oil exports, the United States would have to go back to importing crude oil from the Middle East, which would mean getting involved in that damned Middle Eastern conflict again.

“I don’t want to get involved in the Middle East again···”

Bush shakes his head.

It would be a terrible thing to go back into the swamp that America had somehow gotten out of.

But the Secretary of State beats his chest and tells us not to worry.

“Don’t worry. Even if Korea were to cut off exports of crude oil from Block 7, it would be okay now. Shale gas development has been accelerating recently. Now, even if Korea were to block crude oil exports in retaliation for tariffs, we would no longer have to import large quantities of crude oil from the Middle East as before.”

“Shale gas? I’ve heard of it, but what exactly is it?”

Although we had certainly heard about it a few times, back in 2002, shale gas was an unfamiliar word to most people.

The Secretary of State speaks confidently about shale gas.

“Shale gas is simply natural gas trapped in rock layers called shale formations. Up until now, it has been difficult to extract it, but with the recent advancement of drilling technology, extraction of shale gas has begun a few months ago.”

Perhaps he still does not fully understand the profitability of shale gas.

But when Bush heard this, he folded his arms and thought about it.

If what the Secretary of State said was true, and if shale gas produced as much natural gas as the crude oil and natural gas that Korea imports, there would be no need to engage in the same kind of diplomatic defeatism toward Korea as we are doing now.

‘Shale gas···’

Foreign Minister Yoo Sung-kook rushes in.

“Mr. President, I have something urgent to report to you. Is this a good time?”

There was an event coming up soon, but his expression looked quite urgent.

‘What’s going on?’

“Um, I have an appointment later, but you seem to be in a hurry. What’s the matter? Let’s hear it first.”

“That, that···”

Minister Yoo swallows hard and speaks with a solemn expression.

“The United States has notified us that it will raise tariffs on Korean products.”

“Tariffs? How much do you plan to raise them?”

“It varies slightly depending on the item, but they say they will increase the price by at least 2 times and for some items, even 5 times.”

‘It was meant to be.’

I was thinking that maybe one day the US would attack us with these tariffs.

It was one of the main weapons that the United States had throughout history.

Within AEU countries, most products were tariff-free, and most EU countries also had free trade agreements with AEU countries, so most products were tariff-free.

Among the countries to which Korea currently has a significant export share, the United States is virtually the only one that has tariffs.

“I had thought they would attack with tariffs at some point, but they came at least twice as strong as I thought.”

“Shouldn’t we make a formal complaint to the United States? Raising tariffs to this level without consultation is an action below common sense.”

“Okay. They probably did it with some degree of determination. Do you think they’ll listen to me if I protest?”

“But can we just sit back and watch tariffs being raised like this?”

Minister Yoo looks at me with a worried look.

“In times like these, protests are not necessary. We need to show them clearly through action. We need to show them that we are not just being taken advantage of like Japan or other countries.”

“President Bush. It’s been a while. How is your father?”

As soon as I called Bush, I brought up the subject of my father and gained the upper hand in the conversation.

It was to emphasize that I am on a close relationship with your father.

“Yes. I hope you are doing well. First of all, congratulations. I heard that Korea won the World Cup a while ago.”

“Hahaha. Thank you. How did our national team’s hard work turn out so well?”

Bush congratulated me, but he didn’t seem to know much about the World Cup.

As evidence, he said he heard the victory, not that he saw it.

I got straight to the point without beating around the bush.

“President Bush, are you really going to raise tariffs on goods exported from Korea?”

Bush answers firmly.

“Yes. The US is currently running a huge trade deficit with Korea. This cannot continue. However, there is room for negotiation.”

‘Room for negotiation? Was there a real reason?’

I asked him cautiously.

“Let’s hear it. What does America really want?”