Republic of Korea in Yeokcheon - Chapter 239



Only Krnovel

#239 People Who Really Love Glory

“So that’s why?”

“Is that a normal purchase? It was a time when the country was shaken by foreign powers and the government was not functioning properly. In that situation, how can you say that throwing a few pennies and taking it was a normal purchase? Is that normal? What country in the world would allow its national treasures or treasure-level cultural assets to be sold to foreign countries at a low price? Does President de Gaulle think this is a normal situation?”

“… … .”

How could this be normal?

Jikjisimcheyojeol is not only a national treasure of the Republic of Korea, but also a cultural asset that is a treasure for all of humanity.

This metal type book predates the Gutenberg Bible, known as the world’s first metal type book, by a full 78 years. In fact, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage in France in 2001, and is a cultural asset that was classified as a precious book and stored in a separate vault at the National Library of France.

This national treasure among national treasures was taken to France by the first French ambassador to Korea, Victor Collin de Plancy, and due to a mistake by the National Library, was sold to antique collector Henri Vever in 1911 for a mere 180 francs.

This 180 francs was equivalent to about 670,000 Korean won in 2006, so it was absurd.

The National Library of France immediately realized its mistake and visited Henri Véber several times to explain its situation, but was flatly rejected. Eventually, it was later donated to the National Library of France along with the Six-Armed Beopbodan Sutra in a will.

How can this situation be normal?

“Honestly, it must have been taken out of the country when the situation back home was chaotic. But it wasn’t us, France, who created that chaos, was it?”

“… … .”

In short, it was a roundabout way of saying that the chaos of the late Joseon Dynasty and the Korean Empire was because their country was weak, and Lee Kang-cheol was seething with anger.

“Is that so? Yes, that’s right. Our ancestors were incompetent and failed to protect the nation’s treasures. The country suffered because it was weak.”

“Oh, no, don’t say that… … .”

“But now we have the power. We have the forbidden weapon along with the United States. What kind of power can we use? Can we use the power to take not only our cultural assets, but also those of your country or other great powers back to our Republic of Korea?”

“omg…….”

When Lee Kang-cheol mentioned the ‘forbidden weapon’, de Gaulle became lost in thought.

It’s unlikely that you would do that with cultural assets, but in any case, just mentioning that forbidden weapon was a huge burden.

“President! You speak harshly!”

“What’s so bad about that? When we were weak, was there ever a great power that didn’t covet our country’s interests? So why is it that your country or the great powers can do it, but we can’t?”

“ha…….”

De Gaulle grabbed his forehead.

I said that I was trying to solve it, but things kept getting more complicated.

After a moment of silence, de Gaulle spoke again.

“Let me be honest. The reason I told you about the circumstances surrounding the removal of your cultural assets was because I wanted to suggest a solution in my own way. To be honest, I want to return all your cultural assets to your country. How can that be an obstacle to your relationship with your country? They were your cultural assets to begin with.”

“But?”

“He is absolutely unwavering. He says he will not do it even if he dies. Even though it is an order from me as the president, he says he would rather resign and rally the citizens to resist.”

“this…….”

Lee Kang-cheol was dumbfounded, but he thought that what de Gaulle said was true.

Because this is something that has already happened in modern times.

In 1993, when French President François Mitterrand visited South Korea to sell the TGV high-speed train, he promised the then South Korean president the return of the Oegyujanggak books that had been looted during the Byeong-in Yangyo, and he actually went so far as to prepare for the return of the books.

However, two female librarians from the French National Library who accompanied Mitterrand on his visit to Korea at the time fiercely opposed the return, and even refused the president’s instructions and went into the hotel hugging the books, crying and protesting.

In the end, they barely managed to persuade them to hand over the books just before the ceremony, but they returned to France and even led a general strike at the National Library, refusing to return the cultural assets.

It’s not just President Mitterrand.

Since then, whenever French presidents such as Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy tried to return cultural properties to South Korea for the overall national interest, they had to overcome fierce resistance from officials at cultural property departments such as the National Library.

So the trick that came out was the ‘permanent rental’ trick.

In some ways, it could be seen as a case of strong professionalism, but it was a shocking thing for the Republic of Korea, which was on the receiving end of it.

“So? What happened?”

“After much coaxing, cajoling, and even threats, we barely managed to reach an agreement.”

“Agree?”

“Yes, it’s a deal. First, the spoils of war… no, the cultural properties that were clearly taken by looting or whose routes of entry are unclear will be returned. Haa! Really. I’m the president, but this is the best I can do. If you push it any further, I’ll submit my resignation and go outside to gather citizens and stage a sit-in.”

“This is incredible.”

“I’m also shocked. I didn’t know that even the President’s instructions would not work.”

“… … .”

“… … .”

It was outrageous, but I couldn’t accept this compromise.

No matter what anyone says, the cultural assets of the Republic of Korea that France owns absolutely had to be returned.

“I believe that President de Gaulle did his best.”

“Really? Thank you. Then, for now, please do as I say… … .”

“No. That is absolutely unacceptable. All of our Republic of Korea cultural assets held by France must be returned.”

“Yes? No, you said you believed it?”

“Yes, I believe it.”

“But?”

“Belief is believing, and not believing is not believing. I know it will be difficult for President de Gaulle, but I cannot accept such a compromise. It is something I, as the President of the Republic of Korea, should naturally accept, and our cultural heritage department is no less important than those people.”

“yes?”

“Did you see what our Cultural Heritage Administration director said yesterday?”

“Oh, you mean Monsieur Jeon?”

“Yes. You don’t know what kind of person he is?”

“Yes, I don’t know.”

“Chairman Jeon Hyeong-pil was one of the richest men in our country. To put it simply, he was one of the top ten richest men in France.”

“I see? But what does this have to do with Monsieur Jeon being rich? And why do you speak in the past tense?”

“Because we used that huge amount of wealth to buy back cultural assets that were illegally smuggled out of our country and to prevent them from being smuggled out of the country during the Japanese colonial period.”

“Me, all my wealth?”

“Yes, it’s all my property.”

“Oh my god… … .”

“Do you know? He is that kind of person. Our government doesn’t treat him as a special independence activist for nothing. But do you think such a great person would accept the president’s compromise? I can’t accept it either, but our former president would probably be so indignant that he would rise up in anger.”

“… … .”

De Gaulle again held his head in his hands.

Although I found the resistance of French cultural heritage officials annoying, I was also impressed by their efforts to do their jobs.

But aren’t there people in South Korea who are worse than that?

“Ha, I see what you mean. For now, I have some more time, so I’ll try to do something.”

“You must return it all, unconditionally. Unconditionally!”

“… … .”

De Gaulle’s sorrow only deepened.

***

The time when Lee Kang-cheol and de Gaulle were fighting over cultural properties.

In a shabby cafe on a side street in Paris, two soldiers were talking in a room next to the cafe’s kitchen.

“Marcel.”

“Antoine, are you ready?”

“Okay. It’s already taken place.”

“Are people certain?”

“That’s for sure. He was a famous sniper in the SS. There’s no way he’ll fail.”

“But let’s take another look. It would be a problem if we were captured and burned alive.”

“That won’t happen. His wife and children are with us.”

“Damn it! I didn’t want it to have to be like this… … .”

“What can we do? We really didn’t know that de Gaulle would betray us.”

“That’s true. I thought General de Gaulle would think the same way as us… … .”

“He must have changed his mind after taking office. But anyway, I feel sorry for that Korean guy. He was the one who caused us to leave Indochina.”

“Forget him. Korea is now a superpower that we cannot do anything about. If we mess with him, Algeria will become a non-issue.”

“Damn, I don’t know how we ended up noticing the yellow monkey.”

“If this goes well, we will be able to see the glory of France again. Then we will take revenge.”

“Okay, I got it. Vive la France (Long live France)!”

“Vibrate France!”

They were people who truly loved glory.

***

“What’s wrong with this? What kind of speech venue is this wide and open?”

Chief of Security Lee Seong-su frowned as he looked out at the vast palace.

The place where Lee Seong-su is now is the Palace of Versailles, which is really dirty and big.

It is not his concern whether the palace of another country is large or small, but the problem is that today, President Lee Kang-cheol stands here before the French Senate and House of Representatives together with President de Gaulle.

France’s parliament is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate uses the Luxembourg Palace as its parliament building, and the House of Representatives uses the Bourbon Palace as its parliament building.

And when the Senate and House of Representatives meet together, they are supposed to use the Palace of Versailles, and today is that day.

“Team Leader Kim, since when have the French kids been managing this place?”

“He said not to worry because he had been doing it without any leaks for the past two days.”

“Damn it! Two presidents meeting just two days ago? Team Leader Kim! We’re going to search this entire damn palace from scratch!”

“Sir, that’s a bit difficult.”

“Why? We agreed, didn’t we? And I don’t care about agreements or anything!”

“I thought so too, but it’s difficult to do so because this is a congressional district.”

“Why is it the National Assembly or Nabal?”

“They say that the members of the National Assembly are in an uproar because the French security guards have been stirring things up for the past two days. But they are taking a really strong stance this time, saying that they can’t stir things up again.”

“What the hell is this?”

“… … .”

Even if he was a rational being, he could not stir up a joint meeting of the two houses of the National Assembly, let alone the executive branch.

Because it could have given rise to serious anti-Korean sentiments.

“What should we do?”

“Ha, damn it. Are you nervous?”

“There’s no other way. Even Mr. Usagi told us to be careful in the council, if not anywhere else.”

“Damn it, search thoroughly again up to 500 meters in front of the palace!”

“Chief!”

“Ah, that’s enough! Our president’s safety is the top priority! This is also something that was supposed to be searched thoroughly at least 2km away, but we’ve compromised! No matter what these guys say, search everything!”

“All right.”

“And deploy all of our agents, and release all of their equipment without worrying about what other people think. Deploy our snipers too!”

“All right.”

When the South Korean security service agents started poking around the Palace of Versailles, chaos broke out, but the agents paid no attention and just quietly went about their work.

However, they also failed to discover the sniper hiding underground 800 meters in front of the palace for four days.

Because the search range was limited to 500m.

After four days of hiding under the flower bed, Gunther began to feel his patience running out.

But I still had to endure it.

If this is successful, the family will be able to receive a large sum of money and move to Brazil to start a new life.

Gunther carefully stroked his rifle as he regained his composure.

Kar98k (Karabiner 98 kurz).

This is a bolt-action rifle for the German Wehrmacht, manufactured by Mauser.

During the war, a whopping 15 million of these were manufactured, and since they were suitable for sniping, many German snipers favored these guns.

It uses 7.92×57mm bullets, and if you attach a telescopic scope to the standard-issue rifle, it can hit targets that are 1,000m away.

I only trusted this gun.