I Became Park Jeong-ui’s Nephew - Chapter 40



Only Krnovel

He became Park Jeong-ui’s nephew. – (40)

“Sister-in-law, is your brother at home?”

“Yes, please come in.”

This is Gyeongseong,

Park Jeong-ui, the political director, visited his brother’s house.

Because his father passed away at an early age, he lived his life looking at his older brother as a father figure. Even though he became the president’s right-hand man, his brother is still a difficult person to him.

But still, there are people I have to visit sometimes, like my hometown.

Besides, my heart was heavy because I had something I absolutely had to say today.

“Tongue… Brother, I’m here.”

“So, did you come here to nag me?”

“Wh… why did I come here to nag you?”

The younger brother, who had been hit hard, was looking into the distance, and the older brother, perhaps frustrated, was the first to speak.

“Tell me honestly why you came here, you punk.”

“You know, why did you write such an article?”

“Why? Did I say something I shouldn’t have said? As a journalist, I have to tell the truth.”

“No, that… right now with Japan and stuff… if you do this, hyung…”

Park Jeong-ui couldn’t bring himself to continue speaking.

I’m afraid I’ll end up getting beaten with a stick again for saying the wrong thing.

My brother has always been the type to be strict when someone does something wrong, and even though he is 35 years old, he still doesn’t like getting hit.

The older brother looked at his younger brother with pity, and now that he was all grown up, he tried to console him with words rather than a stick.

“Do you live in front of Sanggeun like that, being mindful of others’ feelings?”

“Ah, of course. Don’t you know what position your son is in right now?”

“The more that happens, the more you should give advice. It’s treacherous to only look at what your superiors think.”

“Whew, bro, if you want to survive, you have to act like a traitor. How have I survived until now?”

Park Jeong-ui did not back down from his position that opportunism was the shortcut to survival.

If you only put your own will and stubbornness first, you will be swept away by the trend, and you will even make plausible excuses.

“Brother, if a horse and a cow fall into the water at the same time, do you know who will survive?”

“Who lives there?”

“The cow survives. Horses swim against the current and eventually die of exhaustion, but cows can’t swim, so they just float around. If they’re lucky, they’ll reach the riverbank and walk out. That’s just the way the world is.”

Park Jeong-ui has lived like an ox, not a horse, until now.

If I try to change something and go against the trend, I will only end up drowning, so I used to be a Japanese army officer and now I live as a Korean politician and soldier.

This is a wise life, and of course, there was no thought of disobeying the president who held absolute power.

“If you think about it, Sang-geun didn’t do anything wrong, right? But what advice would I give him in front of him? He just needs to do what he’s told to do.”

“Eww~ Anyway, what kind of guy are you…?”

“You should be more aware of your brother. Your son is doing a great job of beating up those Japanese, so why are you writing such an article there…?”

“What? Are you done talking?”

Park Jeong-ui, sensing something ominous, wiggled his hips.

My brother, who immediately turned into a tiger because I talked back, fortunately didn’t scold me like before.

“Sigh~ If you act like that, I guess I’ll have to play the villain.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There is no one who says things that the King does not want to hear, so what can the King do? You just go.”

“No, hyung… what did Sanggeun do wrong?”

“People change when they get into positions of power. I’m just holding the reins to make sure Sang-geun doesn’t end up like that.”

Director Park Sang-ui was concerned about his son’s future.

Dictatorship was chosen with the plausible excuse of ‘for the country’, but was there only justice in the process?

It is true that former Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly Shin Ik was falsely accused and imprisoned. What crime did he commit?

Thanks to the Korean People’s Party, which seized absolute power by suppressing Shin Ik-ui and the opposition party, Korea grew rapidly under the dictator’s whip.

Does that mean that the suppression of the opposition party can be justified?

Park Sang-ui decided that now was the right time to pardon Shin Ik-ui.

Of course, from the perspective of the Korean People’s Party, this was absurd. Park Jeong-ui stopped his brother from running wild.

“Brother!! Please stay still!! If you keep doing this, there’ll be trouble again!!”

“You punk, is it justice to let a 50-year-old man shiver in solitary confinement and die like that? If this continues, Mr. Shin Ik will die and the president’s reputation will be damaged. Do you understand?”

“No… that’s… .”

“If you keep looking at your superiors like that, the country will only be left with opportunists who bark when told to and crawl when told to. If you’re the director of the Political Bureau, you should act like one.”

Park Jeong-ui frowned.

I understand what you mean, but what good is there to be gained by saying that to the President?

There is a line that even the president’s uncle should not cross, but Park Jeong-ui does not yet know that line well.

How much of this will my nephew take as advice and how much will he consider as interference?

I’ve never given advice before so I don’t know what to do.

***

“Your Majesty, the Director of the Political Bureau has something urgent to tell you.”

“Really? What’s going on?”

Today, as the daily routine continued, I received a call from the Korean People’s Party.

I delegated matters concerning the National Assembly and political parties to Speaker of the National Assembly Ji Chang-cheon and my uncle, but did something come up?

First, entry was permitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Director of the Political Bureau.

The conversation started like that, and the Speaker of the National Assembly spoke first.

“Your Excellency, the opposition party has requested a pardon for former Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Shin Ik.”

“A pardon?”

“Yes, I heard that he hasn’t been in good health lately. He’s not young either, so I think it would be a good idea to pardon him at this point….”

I turned my gaze towards my uncle.

Isn’t the political director too passive, looking away like a scared rabbit?

I bit the back of his neck because I wanted to play a prank.

“What do you think, Director of the Political Bureau?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The release of former Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly Shin Ik. Do you agree?”

“I will only follow the wishes of His Excellency the President.”

“You’re taking politics too easy. Do you just say YES to what I say and that’s it?”

The look of bewilderment was clearly visible on the face of the bitten uncle.

I know that my uncle recently visited my father, and I was just joking around to see this kind of reaction.

If it was my father’s personality, he wouldn’t have left my uncle alone.

The image of my uncle not knowing what to do when my father scolded him is still vividly engraved in my memory.

But now that he is the political director of the Korean People’s Party, I expected him to demonstrate the ability and distribution befitting that title.

“Why should we release former Vice Speaker Shin Ik? Just because he is old? I don’t think that’s right.”

“That’s true. So… may I say something?”

“Please speak.”

“Your Majesty is now a person who receives absolute respect from the people. If an independence activist were to be imprisoned and die under the rule of such a person, it would not be a good thing to hear. I don’t think it would be a problem to release the remaining fish into the river.”

“is it so?”

I smiled strangely.

I’m doing a tightrope walk, so let’s give it another push here to see how it reacts.

Or should I just let it go? After much thought, I decided to stop the prank here.

“If the administration intervenes, it will look a bit strange, so please package it as something decided by the National Assembly and the judiciary.”

“All right.”

The Korean People’s Party has begun work to free former National Assembly Vice Speaker Shin Ik.

Of course, the president’s intervention was packaged as non-existent, and the country showed off that it was a democratic country, even if only formally.

***

“teacher!!”

“teacher!!”

“Hey, stop yelling.”

This is Seoul Prison,

Former Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Shin Ik-hee, who was imprisoned on charges of sedition, has been released after two years.

When I went into prison, I thought, ‘I’m going to die like this,’ but for such a miracle to happen, what’s even more difficult to understand is that the ruling party, the Korean People’s Party, pushed for his release.

What are you going to do with this old man alive?

Shin Ik-ui was concerned about that, but for the time being he stayed at home.

The problem then was that the Korean Democratic Party members flocked to Shin Ik-ui and vented their complaints.

“Sir, the president has closed down 20 colleges. Do you know that?”

“… I know. Rumors spread even in prison.”

“He is trying to make fools of the people!! He must be doing this because if there are many educated people, it will be a threat to the dictatorship!!”

“That’s right!! If this continues, the Park family will take over this country!! If we let that guy go, true democracy will never be achieved!!”

“Shhh, be quiet. What are you talking about?”

Shin Ik-ui encouraged his supporters.

It is true that the President rules with an iron fist, but he does not do so without any background.

We have the strong backing of the United States, and above all, we have the powerful weapon of the support of the people.

The recent actions of the Korean government are surprising.

By attracting Shanghai Jews and inducing capital to flow into this country, Korea is growing rapidly.

Thanks to this, capitalists evaluate Korea as a trustworthy country.

Here, by establishing additional diplomatic relations with Israel and Britain, the possibility of a foreign invasion was preempted.

What could be the reason that Korea fell into Japanese colonial rule?

Because he is completely isolated diplomatically, but not now. This alone is a huge achievement for the president, and there is no room for the opposition to interfere.

The most they can say is ‘university oppression’ and ‘dictatorship’, but how many people will agree with such words?

Shin Ik-ui muzzled the opposition party members.

“Watch your mouths. If you criticize the president now, the roots of the opposition party will be completely uprooted. Is that okay?”

“Ha… but… if this continues, this country will belong to the Park family.”

“You are mistaken!! Does it have to be me?!! Are you unhappy that someone else is in power and not me?!! That is not good for the country!!”

Shin Ik-ui opposed dictatorship, but was wary of opposing it for the sake of opposing it.

As long as the organization runs well, there is no problem regardless of who leads it, but there are those who are trying to turn the world upside down just because I am not in a high-ranking position.

And the provisional government was torn apart by that act.

Shin Ik-ui watched the entire process, and now he was fed up with factional fighting.

As a representative of the opposition party, all I want from the president is to oppose dictatorship, and if the president steps down from his position after 25 years, I have nothing to say.

If the president were to revise the constitution and declare permanent rule, that would be another matter, but isn’t that not the case now?

And even if the government changes, the Park family’s influence on this country will not disappear.

Who is the richest person in Korea right now?

Who is the most influential politician? Who is the politician who can protect Korea’s interests in the international order? Anyone can see that it is the current president.

This is a fact that will not change even if the president steps down from his position.

Do you think that people in politics in the future will not pay attention to the Park family?

Knowing how to read the mood is also a virtue of a politician.

Above all, Shin Ik-ui, who had just been released from prison, had no energy to fight the president.

“If you want to kill me, go around saying things like that. If you keep making a fuss like this, I’ll end up back in jail for conspiracy to commit sedition. Do you want that?”

“No… Teacher, what if you say something like that? We will do as you wish, to achieve democracy and overthrow the dictatorship… .”

“Leave me alone. I’m old now. I don’t have the strength to fight a young president.”

The Democratic Party of Korea was embarrassed when the opposition leader came out like this.

I tried to turn this situation around by gathering forces centered around Shin Ik-ui, but the leader is in this state.

Some radicals created their own faction, with Shin Ik-ui as the nominal president.