1979, Manager Kim is Inheriting Dictatorship! - Chapter 42



Only Krnovel

Episode 42

As expected, the biggest gain from territorial expansion was that it was free from being an island nation.

Although Korea is clearly not an island in terms of territory, it is a peninsula and is surrounded by North Korea, so it is practically an island country.

However, as unification took place and the territory expanded northward, it was no longer an island nation.

It may be difficult to have active exchanges with China and the Soviet Union right now, but when you consider that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reform and opening up of China in a few years will make things much more active, this is clearly a huge advantage.

And it was clear that the underground resources in the territory in the North would be quite substantial.

To be honest, it is not at the level of a red map like the United States, where resources are produced when you dig.

However, it is clear that the underground resources buried in the north are much more numerous and of greater variety than those buried in the south.

And now it’s still 1984.

It is different from 2023, when North Korea was selling and selling its land because it had no money, and was effectively running out of resources.

It was clear that there must be a large amount of underground resources remaining.

‘Knowing where underground resources are is also a huge advantage···.’

By using a smartphone to check the locations where underground resources were found and send them to specific locations, the cost of finding underground resources was also greatly reduced.

“Please make sure to thoroughly check this place and this place in particular.”

These resources will certainly be of great help in developing South Korea and in destroying North Korea’s infrastructure in the future.

It wasn’t just the territory.

The population has increased.

That’s a whopping 19 million people.

This population increase had very significant implications for the country.

Population of a unified Korea: 59 million.

Considering that France has a population of 56 million, this number of 59 million is certainly a huge number.

The so-called generational ratio within the population was also perfect.

It was an ideal pyramid-shaped structure, not the so-called jar-shaped population structure or inverted pyramid-shaped structure like Korea in 2023.

Now that the population has grown this much, we can lay the foundation for a country that can survive not only on export markets but also on the domestic market.

If we abolished the birth control policy and made efforts to increase the population from now on, we could easily expect a population of 100 million in the future.

This population of 100 million was a number that could sufficiently support the country’s domestic market alone.

In fact, Japan’s population is 120 million.

They have an overwhelmingly higher domestic market share compared to Korea.

This is possible because of their population of over 100 million people.

What would have been impossible with a population of 40 million has become possible through unification.

###

Support remained strong.

There is still one year left until the general election, but the approval rating is overwhelming.

The achievement of being the president who achieved unification was shown by a public approval rating of close to 90%.

And we had to do what we had to do when the approval rating was high.

The population had to be increased immediately.

What to do when your approval rating is high.

Things that could definitely lower your approval ratings.

It might cost them public support right now, but someone had to do what had to be done.

A president can’t just do things that increase his approval rating.

Sometimes there are things you have to do even if you get scolded.

Clearly, even if the approval rating dropped a little, things that absolutely had to be done in the long term had to be done.

And the issue that caused the greatest concern was the increasing birth rate.

If we neglect this problem now, even if South Korea becomes a powerful and advanced country in the future, the ridiculous situation of natural extinction due to population decline will occur in a few hundred years.

Of course, it is not to the extent that we can call it a low birth rate at present.

The birth rate in 1983 was 2.03.

This is a statistic based only on the birth rate in the South, and the birth rate in the North was higher at 2.69.

The replacement fertility rate required for a country to maintain its current population is typically 2.10.

In 1983, South Korea’s birth rate was slightly lower than that.

So on the surface, it might seem like there was no problem.

However, if things continue the same way without any countermeasures, the birth rate will drop to a truly desperate level of 0.7 by 2023.

That is why this was raised as an important agenda item at the State Council meeting.

But the cabinet members showed little sympathy for this content.

“Mr. President, we will abolish the birth control policy. But is it really necessary to implement a policy that encourages childbirth separately from that?”

“That’s right. Even if we don’t pour money into this, if we just abolish the birth control policy, the birth rate will increase.”

I also understand that they may not be sympathetic to this issue.

At that time, Korea was overcrowded and had problems.

It wasn’t a problem because I wrote it down.

They were of the view that even if the birth rate were to drop slightly right now, it would not be a big problem.

But my thoughts were very different.

‘It’s not too late after it’s lowered…’

“No. We need to do it now. After the birth rate falls, no matter what we do or how much money we pour in, it will be too late. We need to work even harder while the birth rate remains above 2, as it is now.”

Several policies to encourage childbirth were implemented.

Of course, the low birth rate problem is not one that can be solved simply by implementing a policy to encourage childbirth.

It is related to social phenomena such as private education, housing prices, and employment.

But you can’t solve all of those things at once.

If that was the case, then at least some visible policy had to be implemented immediately.

Some citizens even criticized the world, saying that it has become a better world with people even paying to have children.

But even in the face of such sarcastic remarks, this policy had to be implemented.

A policy that can be implemented with 1 million won now may become a policy that is difficult to implement even with 100 million won in 40 years.

###

After unification, the economy also began to improve.

The money draining away due to North Korea’s infrastructure construction was certainly not small.

But after unification, uncertainty about war on the Korean Peninsula disappeared.

So naturally, foreign investors’ investments began to rapidly accelerate.

The Korean economy began to pick up steam as foreign capital, including from the U.S., Europe, and Japan, had previously been reluctant to invest due to the risk of war, began to pour in.

[Unified Korea. Recently known as the most attractive investment country.]

[Korea’s high GDP growth rate, diplomatic relations with China, unified Korea, and growing domestic market – there is no reason not to invest in Korea.]

[Invest in Korea. Then your descendants will not have to work.]

Foreign media outlets paid attention to Korea every day.

If we only look at Korea’s growth potential, it is seen as much higher than that of Japan, which has already become an economic powerhouse.

The timing of unification played a part in this.

The early 1980s was a good time for unification economically.

At least compared to 2023, the economic levels of the South and the North are not at an absurd level.

Up until now, there have been many usable infrastructures built with support from the Soviet Union.

I don’t know if it will still be useful 10 or 20 years from now, but for now, it is a usable infrastructure.

Currency unification.

The land issue.

Abolish idolization.

Repelling the remnants of the Communist Party.

Of course, there were still many problems piling up.

But even leaving that aside, unification was clearly moving the future of the Republic of Korea in a positive direction.

###

The economy was booming, but problems arose in the national budget.

The cost of building various public infrastructure projects was woefully inadequate.

No matter how usable North Korean infrastructure is, there are quite a few things that need to be replaced.

Although there were quite a few usable roads, infrastructure such as water supply and telephone lines had to be built from scratch.

Despite the government’s extreme efforts to save money and the substantial amount of money it earns from sovereign wealth funds and national pensions, it is running a huge deficit.

However, it was not possible to have a handshake like the unification of East and West Germany, where the unification tax was collected for several decades.

This is because it was clear that this would only further increase the social conflict between the North and the South.

‘We need another way···.’

“Isn’t there any money left over···.”

I take a walk around the inner garden of the Blue House and ponder over various things.

‘Should we privatize state-owned enterprises… or… invest more boldly in sovereign wealth funds…?’

“Uh, I don’t know..”

As I was pulling out my hair, startled employees came up to me and asked me.

“Mr. President, is there anything that is uncomfortable?”

“Ah… no. Let’s go into the office now. And once we get into the office, could you please bring me a cup of coffee?”

“Yes. I will prepare it right away.”

I returned to my office, drank the coffee my staff brought me, and took a break while searching for the future of the changed Republic of Korea.

However, while searching, I found an old article that was very interesting.

[The slush funds left behind by North Korea’s Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il were discovered in the xx xx xx xx xx area, xx years after their deaths. .. .. .. .. ..]

[Mr. xxx, the Swiss bank account manager of the Kim family, is said to have been hiding in xxx for xx years, surprising people. The amount of money he managed in the Swiss bank is…]

“Oh my… why didn’t I think of this?”

It seemed like there was a breakthrough.

I hadn’t thought of this.

Money that all dictators have.

It’s slush funds.

In the case of North Korea in particular, this amount was known to be beyond imagination.

It was clear that he must have a significant amount in the form of gold, dollars, jewels, etc., and that he must also have a significant amount in ways that no one other than himself or someone managing it would know about, such as through a Swiss bank.

‘How long has it been?’

I just identified the point where I could remove those blinds.

[Points: 2,700pt]

Fortunately, there were plenty of points.

Even after purchasing the ICBM, I bought various things, but the 100 points I accumulated every day were now like a solid bowl of noodles.

‘Well then, let’s take a look.’

[Would you like to pay 100 points and remove the blinds?]

I paid points multiple times to remove all blinds in the article.

[The slush funds left behind by North Korea’s Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il were discovered in 2013, 30 years after their deaths, during the renovation of Bonghwa Station in Pyongyang. The slush funds were stored in various forms, including dollars, gold, precious metals, and antiques, and the amount is known to be equivalent to 2 billion dollars.]

[It is known that Mr. Rio Kyung, the so-called butler who managed the Swiss bank accounts of the North Korean Kim family, denied the fact that the Kim family had died after unification and lived in a homeless shelter in Hamheung City, believing that the Kim family would return someday. People were shocked to learn that he, a member of North Korea’s elite, was in a homeless shelter. The scale of the Swiss bank accounts he managed is known to be around 2 billion dollars, which is very shocking.]

‘4 billion dollars combined?’

I really did eat a lot.

‘but..’

When I saw the news in the past, I remember that even back in 2004, the amount of slush funds they said they had was in the tens of billions of dollars.

Of course, this is only an estimate of the actual amount held in Swiss banks; the actual amount would have been much larger.

So, it wouldn’t be impossible for such an absurd amount to come out even in 1984.

I called the chief secretary outside and spoke to him.

“Chief of Staff. Please tell the Director of the National Intelligence Service to come to the Blue House.”