1979, Manager Kim is Inheriting Dictatorship! - Chapter 41



Only Krnovel

Episode 41

###

A week later, the Korea-Japan summit was held in Nagoya.

Nagoya was selected as the host city for the 1988 Olympics, replacing Korea, which was at war.

After the de facto unification there, the intention was to invite South Korean President Kim Jong-guk, who was regarded in the West as a war hero for defeating communist countries, to have a publicity effect.

The summit lasted a total of three days.

Various practical consultations and mutual investments between Japan and Korea, etc.

There was a lot of talk.

And on the third and final day of the summit.

The announcements that will mark the end of this summit have begun.

First, the announcement was made by Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone.

He calmly read the paper he had brought.

“Starting with this Korea-Japan summit, Korea and Japan will now become new Asian partners and partners heading toward a new future… .”

In front, ceremonial words pass by.

Although it was an announcement of a summit between two Eastern countries, perhaps because of the Korean War, media from all over the world gathered there.

And when the reporters were starting to get bored, Prime Minister Nakasone brought up a story he had previously promised to tell.

“In our country, Japan, during the Japanese Empire, for no reason at all, we forced men to work in coal mines and other places, and we implemented a system of sexually exploiting young women, so-called comfort women, by soldiers. This was a clear mistake committed by the Japanese Empire and its military. Therefore, for the sake of constructive Korea-Japan relations in the future, as the Prime Minister of Japan and as a Japanese citizen, I apologize for these past events.”

Prime Minister Nakasone steps forward and bows his head.

All media outlets, including Western media, Japanese media, and Korean media, were in shock.

It was not that forced conscription or comfort women were unknown issues, but in reality, it was one of the issues that the Japanese government had tried to hush up and pass over, so it was naturally shocking when the Japanese Prime Minister bowed his head and apologized, which was unusual.

“Prime Minister!! So, are you admitting all the war crimes committed by the Japanese military in the past?”

“Prime Minister! Then what about the issue of compensation for the victims?”

Reporters who had been listening quietly suddenly start moving around busily to ask questions.

“We will take questions all at once after the press conference. And as for the issue of compensation, since the amount of compensation that must be paid varies from person to person, we will discuss it with the victims later and then tell you.”

The staff barely manages to dissuade the reporters.

It was an apology that had a slightly stuffy feel, something very Japanese.

It wasn’t an apology for all war crimes, nor did the Emperor come out and apologize.

But even so, Prime Minister Nakasone’s remarks were enough to turn not only Korea but also Japan upside down.

To begin with, most Japanese people at the time were unaware of the existence of comfort women and forced conscription, so it came as quite a shock to hear such words coming from their own Prime Minister.

As soon as this story came out, far-right media outlets, including conservative media outlets in Japan, picked up their pens to write articles attacking Prime Minister Nakasone.

But the article was never written.

This is because the announcement I made right after that was even more shocking to the Japanese archipelago.

“Hello. Korean people. Japanese people. Through this Korea-Japan summit, we, Korea, are moving towards normal relations between the two countries… and once again establishing friendly relations.”

I also throw out some polite words first.

Then he swallowed for a moment and brought up the subject of Japanese abductees.

“As you know, our Republic of Korea has achieved de facto unification by occupying all the territory that the North illegally occupied. And in the process, we learned a shocking fact related to Japan. That is, a total of 13 Japanese citizens were kidnapped and taken to North Korea.”

It was not a place for reporters to ask questions or anything like that since it was a press conference announcement, but because the content was so shocking, one Japanese reporter managed to subdue the security guards and ask a question.

“President Kim Jong-guk! What do you mean? Are you saying that the urban legend was actually true?”

“Yes, it is true. The total number of Japanese nationals we have confirmed is 13. They were originally people who had no ties to North Korea. They were simply kidnapped from Japan and taken to North Korea because North Korea needed them.”

The press conference quickly became chaotic. The Japanese reporters, in particular, called the headquarters without saying a word to be the first to report this news.

I continued talking while looking at them like that.

“And our South Korean military has identified the identities and current addresses of the 13 Japanese abductees during the post-war processing process, and they are currently under the protection of the South Korean government. And today, we will return all 13 Japanese citizens to their homeland, Japan.”

Applause erupts among Japanese reporters.

After I calmed them down, I told them what I really wanted to say.

“However, there is something I would like the Japanese people to remember. In the past, during the Japanese colonial period, the forced conscription and comfort women issues were not much different from the current abductions by North Korea. In the past, Koreans were also taken to unknown places overnight without any crime and were separated from their families. Korean people. Japanese people. These things are not simply political or diplomatic issues. They are human issues. Whether war or something worse happens in the future, we must learn from today’s events and never let something like this happen again. Thank you.”

The very next day after the summit.

All 13 Japanese who had been abducted returned to Japan.

The 13 Japanese who returned to Japan received enormous attention from the airport and were interviewed by the media every day, and the contents of those interviews had a definite impact in Japan.

“Honestly… we were people who had absolutely no connection to North Korea. But then we were suddenly kidnapped to North Korea for no reason… To be honest, I never thought we would be able to return to Japan.”

“Being separated from my family overnight and living in a place where I had no connections was truly hell.”

The contents of the Korea-Japan summit were shocking to the Japanese people.

From Japan’s perspective, it was a huge shock to learn that the urban legend that North Korea had really kidnapped its citizens was actually true.

In addition, I was shocked once again by the fact that Japan had committed similar acts in the past.

And although not all voices were unanimous, a majority of Japanese people said they were glad that the government had finally apologized.

“I am glad that the Prime Minister has apologized now. In the past, Japan has done many things to Korea that should not have been done. In fact, I used to doubt whether the comfort women issue really happened, but when I saw that the Japanese people were kidnapped to North Korea, I realized that these things really happened, and that they were not distant stories, but our stories. We must never let this kind of thing happen again in history.”

Of course, some of Japan’s far-right forces have also spewed out harsh words and actions.

“All of Korea’s comfort women claims are false! Prime Minister Nakasone, who has been pursuing submissive diplomacy toward Korea, must step down immediately!”

Fortunately, however, Japan in the 1980s did not sympathize with the opinions of these far-right forces as much as one might think.

Korea’s reaction was beyond words.

In particular, society was shocked in many ways as testimonies about comfort women and forced conscription began to surface.

The truths that had been hidden in the name of growth until now have come to light. Shocking statements were made in many ways, and the people were angry and saddened together.

Separately from the Korea-Japan agreement, individual compensation was also provided to victims one by one.

In this process, the government stepped forward to help Japan not to turn away from the compensation issue.

This event also touched the hearts of North Korean citizens and greatly contributed to the unification of Korea moving towards becoming a single society.

###

After unification, many changes occurred in many places.

And the place where this change took place was no different than the political world.

The political world has also become more complex in many ways.

When the war started, everyone unanimously issued statements condemning North Korea because the president, whose approval rating was over 80%, was attacked.

Even TJ, who had been a pacifist, spoke out strongly.

“North Korea must reveal whether the terror attack on the president of a country was really their act and must apologize for this terror attack. If North Korea does not apologize, the clock of peace in the Republic of Korea is running out.”

Some politicians did not want unification to happen.

This is because they did not think unification would be of much help in protecting their vested interests.

But eventually the war broke out, and now the situation was one of unification.

It wasn’t right away, but eventually, in the next election, there would be an additional voter base equal to the population of that north.

In 1984, South Korea finally surpassed 40 million in population, and North Korea surpassed 19 million, bringing the unified Korea’s population to 59 million.

Since the birth rate has been on the rise overall due to the abolition of the birth control policy, the population will likely increase even further.

Ultimately, the future of politics will change significantly depending on where the votes of those 19 million or more people go.

Some political forces have been pushing populist policies to win the votes of North Korean citizens.

“We will allow a one-to-one exchange of North Korean currency and South Korean currency!”

“We will equally distribute all ownership rights to the current North Korean land among the North Korean people.”

There were many problems after unification, but issues related to currency and land in particular were not ones that could be approached so easily.

It was a problem that both had to be approached slowly.

That was the reason why unconditional, full-scale inter-Korean exchanges were not permitted even after unification.

These are people who have lived apart for 30 years.

Everything was different and could not come together at once.

That’s why it had to be merged gradually.

However, some politicians literally just talked a lot, thinking that they only needed to get votes.

No matter how many times I called him and told him to exercise self-restraint, it only lasted for a moment.

The media also increased circulation by writing provocative articles related to North Korea.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that there were only these social problems after unification. On the contrary, more good things happened.

First of all, the biggest thing was that the territory increased.