Chapter 173
January 1, 2021, 22:00, Korea
On January 1, 2021, the Korean Peninsula achieved a historic milestone of becoming one and reunited as a nation. The nation’s name was officially changed to the Federal Republic of Korea that consisted of seven united states under a central government.
The administrative district of the central federal government defined its current Korea’s territory as the Southern state, while North Korea’s territory was the Northern state. The three Northeastern Manchurian states (Western Manchu, Central Manchu, and the Mongolian self-governed state) were designated as the Eastern State, while the Shandong Province as the Western state. President Suh Hyun-woo of South Korea was nominated as the President of the Federal Republic of Korea, whereas Kim Yeo-jeong was nominated as the Vice President. The central government would maintain the current political system and nominated former Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Hyung-won as Prime Minister. Meanwhile, the Vice Minister of each government branch was to be occupied by politicians from the Northern state.
The Ministry of Unification changed its name to the Ministry of Unification Policy, and the Minister was promoted to Vice Prime Minister while the three Vice Minister positions were given to members from the Northern state. This was done to ensure that resources would be directed to aid in the recovery of the Northern state.
Despite the nation being in war with China, the major corporations within the construction field were moving their heavy equipment in cooperation with the Korea Expressway Corporation. An unending line of trucks and other equipment were headed to the Northern state through the recently completed highway.
Recently, the Northern state’s highways were expanded or newly built, but they were like mere dirt roads compared to those in the Southern state. Therefore, the first item of business was the expansion of the Northern state’s roadways that will be the base of the recovery plan.
The highways would connect cities, while the two-lane roads would connect villages. The network of roads would allow people to move from one part of the Northern state to another within a few hours. Construction for this project had begun.
Along with the road expansion construction of the Northern state, the second project that the central government and the Ministry of Unification Policy had come up with was the underground mineral excavation and application. This project would lessen the burden of the enormous cost of unification that would fall on the nation. The Northern state’s underground resources were estimated to be worth two trillion dollars, and potentially more.
The Southern state had been relying on imports of iron, magnesite, and other minerals for 100 percent of their supply. By relying on the Northern state’s minerals instead of importing, the production cost for many high-tech products would be decreased. In a few decades, this would lead to significantly improved foreign currency savings for the country.
There were 360 different types of underground resources within the Northern state, and 200 of them were used for industrial and technological industries. The most abundant were tungsten, molybdenum, graphite, barite, mica, fluorite, silver, steel, lead, iron, aluminum, coal, and many others.
The various types of useful underground resources were buried in a small area. The steel was buried under Hamgyungbook-do’s Musan, Hamgyungnam-do’s Lee-won, Hwanghaenam-do’s Un-yul, Jae-ryung, and other places within the Northern state. The excavated steel was processed at Cheong-jin, Seong-jin, and Song-rim.
Gold was most abundant in Pyeongbook’s Unsan and Dae-yu dong; a large-scale processing plant was located in Nam-po. Coal, which was another primary source of power, can be found in Pyeongannam-do’s southern and northern mines. While there was anthracite at Hamgyungnam-do and brown coal buried under the Hamgyunbook-do’s northern and southern mines, 50 percent of tungsten supply came from the Northern state.
Korea had achieved an unprecedented and rapid economic growth, but the war with China had caused many of its trade to be put on hold; thus, causing the economy to slow down. When Russia and Japan entered the picture, the economy took another hit and profits were down by 50 percent. The Northern state’s underground resources were the solution to mitigate some of the trade woes the Federal Republic of Korea was now facing.
The last project was expanding the hygienic and medical facilities directly related to the lives of citizens within the Northern state. The 25 million Northern state citizens were unable to receive medical attention for even a common cold excluding the top 1 percent. Since the citizens of the Northern state were unable to receive treatment for a common cold, it was already clear what would happen if a more serious illness fell upon them.
The Southern state had started off with building a hospital for each state and city within the north, while it started building a clinic to each county for the south. Also, medical schools and nursing schools for every university was erected or expanded to meet the demand for more medical professionals.
The fourth agenda on the project was meeting the basic demands for life: food, shelter, and clothing. Based on geographical location, the climate within the Northern state was considerably different from the Southern state. Especially in the summer and winter, the temperature difference could reach up to 10 degrees. Due to the cold winds from Siberia, winter was the toughest time for citizens in the Northern state.
The corporations within the clothing industry offered their leftover stock to the nation for free while humanitarian organizations and citizens donated clothes. The movement had spread, and a large number of clothes were collected for the Northern state’s citizens.
Also since many Northern state citizens had died from hunger, a free meal plan was established for babies, children, and teenagers. The agricultural boom from this development had increased the production of food significantly thanks to the genetically engineered vegetables, fruit, rice, wheat, and cattle that could withstand viruses and other diseases developed through the alien technology. The growth in agriculture had made the meal plan possible.
The Ministry of Agriculture had established an effective logistics system that reduced the margin of middlemen significantly. Thus, farmers were guaranteed a fair income for their crops and cattle, while the consumers could purchase products at a fair price as well. Prices for other goods were affected as well, and the entire nation’s price became lower.
The last thing on the project was providing housing for the citizens of the Northern state. Most citizens from the Northern state were living in a shanty house that could not block the wind, rain, or the frigid winds of winter. The Korean Housing Corporation had used a special type of construction material to build 30,000 apartment units at a low cost and provide them to citizens. The housing fee was put under a mortgage that would be paid off in 20 years.
Separately from the Northern state recovery project, the unification of the Northern and Southern military forces was underway as well. South Korea’s ministry of national defense and North Korea’s ministry of the people’s armed forces were being unified. Therefore, the Joint Chief of Staff and North Korea’s Joint Chief of Staff became one. The first decided thing was to unify the ranking system under one system since the military was an order based organization.
The Korean military’s ranking system was used as the basis to have the ranks of the Northern military’s men change their rank to captain from senior lieutenant, and have the senior officers become colonels. The Generals from North Korea were changed to a Brigadier General while the other Generals followed the rank of major general, lieutenant general, and so on. Lastly, the two ranks of Commander in Chief and Chief of Staff were excluded from the transition.
Based on the vast military reduction plan, the only remaining army forces were to consist of four corps, those being the 8th Special Forces Corps, the 620th Artillery Corps fighting in the Korea–China war, and the remaining two that would be formed during the reorganization to become the automated sentry corps.
The other military force to join the unified military was the missile forces in North Korea that had threatened Korea with its nuclear weapons. Since the late 1980s, the missile forces had placed Scud missiles (range of 300~500 km) in the field and continued to place missiles ever since. In the 1990s, the Ro-dong missiles (range 1,300 km) were placed in the field, then the Dae-po 1 missiles (range of 4,300~6,000 km) were placed in the field as well. In total, over 1,000 ballistic missiles had been placed in the field and prepared to launch.
The unified Korean military’s Joint Chief of Staff had decided to reorganize the missile forces. The only stipulation had been decommissioning the missiles with nuclear warheads since Korea was a non-nuclear weapon holding nation that followed the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty.
Also, since the Northern state’s missile forces were combined with the nation’s military, the Korean military now held five missile forces in total, including those already in the army, navy, air force, and the aerial and space force.
* * *
January 2, 2021, 10:00, Yongsan-ku B2 bunker (ROK Military Joint Command Center), Seoul
The Joint Chief of Staff’s Chairman Kang Ui-sik and the Commanding Generals were tending to their duties as usual. Despite the war with China being over, and both North and South nations finally being unified, the war with Russia and Japan was still ongoing. They still had to work after attending the unification ceremony. However, within the Command Center, there were a few new faces that came from the Northern state.
“I hope you have a happy New Year, and since we are now one family, let’s all greet each other.”
With Chairman Kang Ui-sik’s words, the Commanders of the Northern and Southern states all shook each other’s hands and greeted one another.
“Now, if you’re all done introducing yourselves, let’s sit down.”
“Now this is something I would not have dreamt of a year ago, Mr. Chairman, sir!”
Vice-chairman Choi Ho-il, who had been nominated recently, smiled at Chairman Kang Ui-sik and spoke.
The original Vice-chairman position was set for a person with the rank of lieutenant general. However, the Federal Republic of Korea, being now a federal government, nominated the Vice-chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff as the Commander in Chief of the Northern state’s military as well. Lieutenant General Lee Un-hyung was promoted to General and as Chief of Staff of the Army.
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s all work as one to protect our nation and put our efforts toward the war against Russia and Japan.”
“Yes, we must. Russia’s one thing, but shouldn’t we use this chance to teach those Japanese a lesson? Do you agree?”
Vice-chairman Choi Ho-il, who was a warlike man, lightly slammed his fists on the table as he spoke. When he did so, Chairman Kang Ui-sik laughed to show his agreement and answered.
“I also agree with you, Vice-chairman, but the central government seems to attempt at working this out politically first.”
“But could that be possible, Mr. Chairman?”
Chief of Staff Shin Sung-yong, who was seated to the right of Chairman Kang’s, asked.
“I am not sure. Those Japanese are surely lacking common sense, so it is hard for me to say. Regardless, let’s leave the politics to the politicians, and why don’t we focus on our duty as soldiers and prepare for what’s to come, eh?”
“Hahaha, you’re right, sir.”
“Now, let’s get to the first item on our meeting’s docket. Let’s get to Russia’s current movements.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff that now had over 70 Generals started their first military meeting for 2021.
* * *
January 2, 2021, 14:00, NIS Anti-terrorism Investigation Unit Director’s office, Seoul
“Great work, Manager Kang!”
Director Huh Young-joon said as he placed a stack of documents on the desk. The contents of the document were Akashi Keida’s confession about his assassination attempt at Vice President Kim Yeo-jeong’s life.
“I still can’t believe it, sir. This is the lowest of the low, sir!”
Vice Director Ahn Yeon-wu spoke as he read the documents.
“Japan has always been like that, hasn’t it? I just hope they will get punished justly for this.”
“Anyway, I must go and meet with our Director to report. Manager Kang, do everything you can to get as much information as possible from that Japanese bastard! That bastard’s rights have all been forfeited.”
“Yes, sir.”
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