1979, Manager Kim is Inheriting Dictatorship! - Chapter 33



Only Krnovel

Episode 33

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On January 2nd, a day after the new year of 1983, Billie Jean, one of the songs from Michael Jackson’s Thriller, was released as a single.

It was the most famous song in the history of pop music and the song that popularized the moonwalk dance among youth around the world.

Popular music was changing rapidly, and the world was changing rapidly every day.

Of course, Korea was also changing rapidly to match this.

Although there were growing pains, the sovereign wealth fund and national pension bills were finally launched after the ruling and opposition parties reached an agreement and the National Assembly passed them.

Fortunately, many citizens signed up for the National Pension because of its high approval rating, and thanks to some support from companies, we were able to start with a fair amount of capital.

And the first investment destination for the sovereign wealth fund and the national pension was also Japan.

At that time, Japan was at the center of the bubble economy.

It was literally a time when the country was overflowing with money and had no control over itself.

It was a time when companies would give you 30,000 yen as an interview fee when you went for an interview, and even though they were making a profit, there were no people to work, so bankruptcies were rampant.

This was the time in Japan when, regardless of whether it was stocks, land, or golf memberships, if you just bought them, the prices would go up.

‘If you sell all the land in Tokyo, you can buy all the land in America and still have some left over.’

It wasn’t for nothing that these words came out.

It was a time when the United States was beginning to gradually contain Japan, and Japan was also beginning to invest in American capital in response.

But this bubble economy doesn’t last long.

In the early 1990s, Japan’s bubble economy began to collapse rapidly.

And after the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy, the country fell into an economic recession to the point that the term “lost 30 years” came into use.

But in the meantime, in Japan, right before the bubble economy burst, there was a lot to be gleaned.

‘I will thoroughly pick you out and eat you up and throw you away.’

He began purchasing a large amount of Japanese stocks, including those of Panasonic, Sony, and Toyota, and he advised some companies to buy real estate, which is not easy to invest in at the national level.

“Oh, Chairman. Now is a good time to buy land in Tokyo, Japan.”

“Chairman Yoo. It’s nothing else, but I’m currently purchasing a membership to a Japanese golf course..”

And another place to invest was the United States.

At this time, the United States was slowly recovering from the shock of the second oil shock.

Even before the sovereign wealth fund was passed, he instructed some of his foreign exchange reserves to invest in the S&P 500 starting in the summer of 1982.

[The S&P 500 rally that started in August 1982 recorded a record rise of 69% through October 1983.]

From 1982 to 1983, the U.S. stock market continued to grow at a truly astonishing rate.

There was an absurd rise, centered around information and communication stocks.

The United States was an attractive market for me, knowing the future of the stock market both in the short term and the long term.

And, in addition to the United States and Japan, we attempted to invest in one more place.

That place is a copper mine in Chile.

Of course, at that time, the Chilean copper industry was already thriving, but what I invested in was not a thriving copper mine.

What I was after were undiscovered mines that would be discovered only in the 1990s.

Thankfully, this Google guy has made it possible to search news from even faraway places like Chile.

[A large copper mine was discovered in the xx region of Chile in 1991, and a very large copper mine was discovered in the xx region of Chile in 1992]

The development rights for the area where this mine is located were purchased cheaply.

Since the land was now worthless, the Chilean government naturally welcomed it with open arms.

And in the case of the Chilean government, since it was a military dictatorship era, if you could just tease the higher-ups a little, you could buy development rights to undiscovered areas at a low price.

In this way, we began to preemptively invest in undiscovered resources abroad, excluding countries where a crazy dictator might come to power in the future and ignore or expel foreign capital investments.

Rather than making immediate profits, I made investments that would snowball into huge profits in 10 years.

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The hot summer of 1983 was passing and September was approaching.

Today is August 31st.

And tomorrow is September 1, 1981, a day filled with sorrow in the history of the Republic of Korea.

Korean Air Flight 007 shooting down.

It was an incident where an aircraft that was supposed to depart from New York, transit through Alaska, and arrive at its original destination, Gimpo Airport, deviated from its route, entered Soviet airspace, and was shot down in mid-air.

The incident was recorded as one of the worst airline accidents in history, killing all 269 people on board, including U.S. Representative McDonald.

Whatever the reason, the Soviet Union received a lot of criticism from the international community because it was incomprehensible to the international community at the time to shoot down a civilian aircraft, not a military aircraft, in this way without any warning.

In fact, if you think about what will happen in the future, it might not be a bad choice to leave this incident as it is.

This incident will increase the public’s antipathy toward the Soviet Union, which will soon expand to antipathy toward communist countries including North Korea, making it an excellent pretext for war.

But the path I chose was to prevent this incident from happening.

“Chief Secretary. Conduct a tax investigation on Korean Air immediately and suspend its operations starting today. Of course, operations will also be suspended for the time being.”

“Huh? What’s that all of a sudden···.”

“This is a request from the National Intelligence Service. Please discuss the details with the Director of the National Intelligence Service and immediately suspend the business. This is an emergency order from the President.”

The media and politicians were shocked when they heard this story.

It was an incomprehensible decision to use the emergency order to conduct a tax investigation and suspend business operations of a mere company.

But it was an inevitable decision because this accident had to be prevented.

Anyway, the tax corruption and all was nonsense.

Later, it would have been a problem if they had created a non-existent person in the National Intelligence Service, told him that he had sent false information, and apologized.

Of course, the suspension of business will not last long.

That should have been enough for about a week.

All you have to do is stop the flight for that amount of time.

There will be losses, but they will be nothing compared to the damage suffered by the company as a result of this incident.

I am the president.

We have a duty to protect the citizens of this country.

I know that if I become president, innocent civilians will die, and I cannot just ignore that for political reasons.

‘If you’re going to do politics like that, you should stop doing politics…’

If I could save the lives of over 200 citizens by being in the media for making a slightly wrong judgment, that would be enough.

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New York John F. Kennedy Airport.

“Is today’s schedule still the same?”

The captain asks the desk clerk.

“Just a minute.. It’s still 00:05.”

“There are two hours left. Should we go in and get ready?”

“Yes, sir. That’s right, sir.”

The captain and the first officer enter the aircraft and perform operational checks one by one before departure.

“No problem, Captain.”

“There’s nothing strange here either. How many minutes are left?”

“45 minutes left.”

Passengers enter the plane one by one, and soon the plane is full of passengers.

“Captain, all passengers are on board.”

“Okay. Standby.”

The captain, who had finished his preparations, was about to depart when suddenly a radio call came in.

“Stop! Stop!!”

An urgent voice came over the radio.

“Huh? What’s going on all of a sudden? Stop?”

“Stop flight! Don’t take off!”

“No, all the passengers have already boarded the plane and it’s time to take off, but you’re saying the flight will be suspended? What do you mean?”

Now all we have to do is set off.

But then suddenly the flight was suspended.

With a U.S. House of Representatives on board, it wasn’t easy to ask all passengers, including him, to get off the plane.

“I don’t know. It’s a story from above. You must never leave!”

“Ha.. what is this..”

[Passengers. This is the captain. Today’s flight has been cancelled due to unforeseen weather conditions. .. .. .. .. ..]

The captain eventually had no choice but to stop preparing and announce the cancellation of departure, citing the weather as an excuse.

“No, the weather is so nice, what do you mean the weather is bad?”

The passengers’ anger was great, but it was minor compared to the other future they would face.

After a week, the suspension of business and operations will end again and operations will resume.

I was anxious that the same incident might happen again if the time changed, but fortunately, the plane that departed from John F. Kennedy Airport on September 8 arrived safely at Gimpo Airport.

“Ladies and gentlemen, your flight has arrived at Gimpo Airport. The weather in Seoul today is… .. .. ..”

###

‘Well then, shall we go now?’

Afternoon of October 7, 1983.

Finally, I boarded a plane and left for the land of destiny, Burma.

It was a time when it was called the Socialist Federal Republic of Burma, not Myanmar.

At that time, Burma was a socialist country with a friendly relationship with North Korea, but it was also a country that put a lot of effort into improving relations with South Korea.

In fact, Burma was not among the countries the president was visiting at the time.

It was later said that Burma, which was not originally included in the travel plan, was chosen because one of Jeon Dae-hwan’s aides strongly insisted on going there.

The reason for the sudden visit to Burma was to isolate North Korea from the Third World, which was a diplomatic goal at the time.

When we arrived, the days passed quickly and it was October 8th.

Upon landing at Burma Airport, we are greeted by Burmese President San Yu.

“Welcome to Burma! President Kim Jong-guk!”

Although he had a military background and a strong-looking face, this man was in fact a puppet president in name only.

The real power holder is Ne Win, chairman of the Socialist Planning Party.

‘But it looks like this guy came out because he’s the president by title.’

I greeted him warmly and we headed to the presidential palace together.

As expected, when we arrived at the Presidential Palace, Chairman Ne Win was waiting for us.

He was the Burmese dictator who wielded enormous power until he was forced to step down in 1988.

President San Yu takes a step back as Chairman Ne Win approaches.

President San Yu’s attitude also clearly shows who is the ruler of Burma.

Of course, this man was the worst dictator, unlike President Lee Jung-hwan or Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

The worst incompetent dictator who reduced Burma economically to the level of one of the poorest countries in the world.

The policies he implemented, such as expelling all foreigners and achieving economic self-sufficiency, achieved the remarkable feat of placing Burma 186th out of 187 countries in 1988.

‘Is this story none of my concern?’

Actually, I had many thoughts about it, but I wasn’t very interested.

I am the President of the Republic of Korea.

If Korea becomes a little more prosperous later, we may be able to provide aid like we received after the Korean War, but anything else is not my job.

Burma’s affairs are the affairs of the Burmese people themselves.

In the first place, I didn’t come here because I was curious about this country’s economy or its dictator.

I didn’t come to this country to get something to eat.

There is no need for complex diplomacy such as North Korea’s isolation from the Third World.

Because next year, the country called North Korea will no longer exist.

As expected on the first day, a grand welcoming party is held.

It’s a pretty extravagant party, even though the residents are suffering every day due to economic difficulties.

It was the type of country that a typical incompetent and greedy dictator would be in power.

“What do you think? How about Korea investing in Burma?”

“That’s right. Now that I’ve come here, I see that there is a lot of potential for development. We are weak, but we will work with Burma.”

The color on Ne Win’s face brightens.

Since they have kicked out all foreigners in the name of achieving self-reliance in the economy, their foreign exchange reserves are virtually at rock bottom. So, they cannot be more grateful for the investment.

‘You’re talking about something like investment…’

Of course, I had no intention of investing at all.

It was just a candy-coated sound to please his mood.

“Mr. Chairman, I will go in and rest today. It is too late.”

“Oh, you must be tired from the aftereffects, but I have held you for too long. How about we talk about investment more specifically tomorrow morning after you visit Aung San Mausoleum?”

“Okay. Then, see you tomorrow.”

So I go back to my hotel room and prepare for tomorrow again.

October 9th.

Aung San Mausoleum terrorist attack.

The day was dawning when a number of key government officials, including South Korea’s ministers, were killed by a North Korean terrorist attack.