1979, Manager Kim is Inheriting Dictatorship! - Chapter 25



Only Krnovel

Episode 25

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“I accept the presidency of the Republic of Korea here today. So that the Republic of Korea can develop once again···.”

The new term began with the presidential acceptance speech.

The term was six years, so there was time to do anything.

It was time to make long-term plans and move forward in all areas, including society, economy, and welfare.

The first thing to do was social integration.

Without social integration, the country could not develop as one.

And the most chaotic place right now is the university district.

The number of university students who had been protesting since the time of President Lee Jung-hwan died became quiet for a while after President Lee’s death, but increased again with the constitutional amendment and presidential election.

The reason was simple.

The passage of a constitutional amendment without term limits and the dictator’s second-in-command taking power.

‘Still… I don’t think Kim Jung-guk treated the college student protesters badly…’

According to statements from several people in the past, he was never the type of person to arrest protesting students and torture them.

Rather, he was the one who said, “How can young people who are too worried about their country to even protest protect the country when it is in danger?”

Kim Jung-guk was a different person from the previous police chiefs who had arrested and tortured countless college students.

But in the end, in their eyes, Kim Jong-guk was just a dictator who succeeded President Lee Jung-hwan.

‘I guess I’ll have to persuade her.’

The university students’ protests were a huge national loss in many ways.

For the sake of the country’s development, it was time to send them back from the squares to the universities.

I took the time to meet with college students, starting with the ones with the most protests.

“Your Majesty! No! It’s dangerous! We don’t know what kind of unexpected action might occur!”

As I arrived at the university, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief, who was blocking the protest, vehemently opposed it.

“It’s okay, sir. I didn’t come here to fight them. I came here to convince the students.”

I continued to walk into the auditorium, leaving the police chief behind as he continued to speak.

The auditorium was already quite full of students.

And after a while, students wearing headbands stand up, hold flags, and start chanting.

“Lee Jung-hwan’s puppet, Kim Jung-guk, step down!”

“Excuse me.. Students, let’s listen to the President first…”

The host tried to calm down the excited students, but it was no use.

Instead, some students threw the eggs they had brought onto the stage where I was.

And then one of the eggs they threw hit me in the face, and my hair, which I had been styling since morning, got messed up with the egg.

And the security guards who were watching the scene from the side got excited and tried to take out their guns.

“These kids..!”

I quickly waved my hand and stopped them.

Guns against students? I wonder if they had thrown Molotov cocktails at them, but it was funny to pull out a gun just because they threw eggs at me. I was the one who found it funny.

“No! What are you doing! Put it away!”

“Mr. President..! You have to show the students an example! Against the head of state, now..”

The chief of security speaks excitedly.

I calmed him down and made him put the gun away.

“Sir, I’m fine. I’m not hurt anywhere. Put me in.”

“Mr. President···.”

Only then do the security chief and the security staff calm down and put back the guns they were about to take out.

I took out the handkerchief from my inside pocket and wiped the egg off my face and hair.

Then he took a small bite of the egg yolk and spoke.

“Oh my… This egg is bad. If possible, I should have thrown in a slightly fresher egg.”

When I came out a little boldly, the students I thought would be embarrassed were actually embarrassed.

I looked at the students who threw the eggs and said.

“Students wearing belts over there. First of all, I came here to talk to you today. Please sit down. It seems like you have a lot of complaints about me, so let’s have a deep conversation today.”

When I come out in a gentlemanly manner, the protesters are confused.

After a while, when things have calmed down a bit, a Q&A session with the students will begin.

A man who seems to be the leader of the protesters steps forward, takes the microphone and asks me a question.

“Mr. President! You were the second-in-command under the dictator President Lee Jung-hwan and enjoyed real power. Do you think it makes sense for someone like that to become president?”

“You don’t think that makes sense? Why? Was there a problem with the way I was elected president?”

“Didn’t you get elected at the gym!”

It seemed like he was talking about being elected in the previous National Unification Conference.

“It was only a temporary position because the presidency could not be left vacant until the Yushin Constitution was revised. I’m sure even the students are aware that both TJ and YS agreed to this.”

Students are taken aback when the names of opposition leaders they respect are mentioned.

“Even if that’s not the case… this constitutional amendment… without a term limit…”

This time, they are bringing up a constitutional amendment.

Perhaps the most unsettling aspect for them is the presidential system with no term limits.

“Don’t you know that the constitutional amendment was passed by a national referendum? In a democratic country, wasn’t the constitutional amendment passed by an overwhelming vote?”

I slowly convinced them of their logic by emphasizing that the constitutional amendment had passed with an overwhelming majority.

“That’s because… ordinary citizens don’t know much about the contents….”

“Isn’t that the sense of superiority that students have? Why do you think that ordinary citizens don’t know? They also understood the constitutional amendment and voted.”

The students can no longer forget the village.

I looked at the students in the auditorium and spoke.

“Everyone, I did not commit any illegalities during the election process, and the voting and counting were conducted fairly. You can see that this is true by looking at the fact that the other candidates are not making any protests.”

“That… that… Still, in order for us to become a democratic nation···.”

“Students, if this society had not truly been democratized, would you have been able to have a conversation like this with me? Has President Lee Jung-hwan ever talked to you like this in the past?”

The auditorium became quiet as no one objected to what I said. I spoke to the students one last time.

“Students, the time for the square is over. Now go back to school. If you really don’t like me, come into the establishment politics. I intend to expand youth participation in politics. If you don’t like me, come into the establishment politics and fight me. And if not, then go back to school.”

After that, large and small protests continued on campus.

I met and talked with them every time.

And as time went on, the protesters gradually lost their motivation.

Because there was no justification.

There was no election process, no ballot counting, and no suppression of the press.

All existing reporting guidelines were abolished, and freedom was granted to the press.

The justification for continuing the democracy protests has disappeared.

Eventually, except for a small number of students from the so-called extreme NL faction, the protests on campus began to come to an end.

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After the student protests subsided, the next thing they touched on was economic policy.

A country cannot achieve development of its systems or society alone.

If the economy couldn’t support it, people’s consciousness and things like that wouldn’t keep up.

There has never been a case of civic consciousness developing in a hungry country.

I promised to achieve a GDP per capita of $5,000 during my term.

In 1980, South Korea’s per capita GDP had not yet reached $2,000.

There was still a big gap from $5,000.

I established the National Technology Agency to achieve the goal of $5,000.

The purpose of establishing the National Technology Agency was to develop cutting-edge technologies led by the state, but its real purpose was to be an organization for disseminating confidential documents purchased on smartphones.

The National Technology Agency’s staff recruited elites from various fields from each company.

Originally, if the country were to recruit talent, it would be companies that would take a passive approach, but as rumors of nuclear power plant technology spread, companies began to draft their best elites to the National Technology Agency in order to somehow obtain the technology.

The National Technology Agency was established in this way.

Now it was time to find a technology that could serve as the first grand step for this national technology agency.

I opened my smartphone and opened the confidential documents app.

[Confidential Document Store]

[Current Grade: Low]

[Current points: 4,400pt]

[‘CD’ has been added to the Confidential Document Shop.]

[‘Shindongjin Rice’ has been added to the Confidential Document Shop.]

Points have been accumulated and items have been added.

Among the recent additions to the Secret Document Store, one in particular stood out.

It was a CD.

[CD / 200pt / Caution: Development imminent]

[Shindongjin Rice / 500pt]

Unlike the others, the CD was marked as being in development with additional information.

‘what?’

Perhaps products being developed by other countries or companies are emerging in that way.

I did a quick scan of Wikipedia’s article on CDs.

[CD is a storage standard jointly developed by Philips and Sony of the Netherlands. Development began in 1979, testing began in 1981, and it was commercialized in 1982.]

‘So you’re saying that it’s still in development? Let’s try this.’

CDs, along with the Walkman, were one of Sony’s representative products during the bubble economy.

Japan and Korea have had overlapping trade areas in several areas since the 1980s.

In that sense, this could be a punch to the Japanese economy.

I purchased the CD technology without further hesitation.

[Purchase completed.]

There are finished CD products and numerous papers and technical books.

I immediately instructed the National Technology Agency to develop this technology.

The development period was one month.

To be exact, it was a process of mass producing products through communication with companies rather than development.

There were already finished prototypes and it was a technology far beyond the CD technology of 1982.

There was no reason why it shouldn’t happen.

Several companies participated, and ultimately, Samsung Electronics was chosen to take charge of development and mass production.

And on December 25, 1980, six days before 1981, on Christmas Day, Samjung announced the development of the CD.

“We, Samsung Electronics, have succeeded in developing the world’s first CD. This CD is a medium that can store high-quality music or high-quality video images that are on a whole other level than cassette tapes…”

And this news spread throughout the world in an instant.

[Korea’s Samsung Electronics develops world’s first CD.]

[Philips, Sony embarrassed.]

[The Japanese and Dutch governments are suspected of hiring industrial spies in Korea.]

[Development of Korea’s First CD. Was it America’s intention to check Japan?]

The world’s media all reported this news with much fanfare.

Some said that the technology was stolen from Philips and Sony through industrial espionage, while others said that the technology was secretly developed in the United States and then given to Korea to check Japan.

But since the idea of ​​industrial espionage was against common sense, it quickly died down.

Even Philips and Sony initially released mass-produced versions of technologies that were still under development.

This was no different than a student who got 70 points telling a student who got 100 points that someone stole his test paper.

And the suspicion that the US helped develop the technology was actively denied by the US government, throwing the world into chaos.

I was amazed that Korea had such outstanding technology.

In this way, in 1981, CDs and CD players were first mass-produced in the world by Samsung Electronics in Korea, not Sony in Japan.