My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 711

“Yes, that’s why I’m saying no. Would someone who recognizes a problem and tries to solve it create another problem?”

“Huh?”

“Isn’t that right? No matter how much of a president he is, covering up a murder is a different matter.”

“I guess. Knowing the biggest problem within the military means his problem recognition ability is intact.”

“That’s right.”

Recognizing a problem has a significant impact on solving the case. For example, if you don’t recognize the cause of a problem and just flail around, it’s meaningless.

“Besides, looking at his policies, his problem recognition ability seems quite outstanding in other ways as well.”

For example, looking at the low birth rate issue, the previous administration suddenly interpreted the cause of the low birth rate as ‘because they don’t have houses’ and built a crazy amount of apartments.

Of course, the vast majority of those apartments remain vacant.

However, the current president has been arguing that the problem isn’t the lack of apartments, but the lack of money to move into them, and he continues to argue that the issue isn’t building apartments, but the need for jobs around them.

However, regarding that reform, he hasn’t been able to properly reform it due to opposition from other politicians and the National Assembly [South Korea’s legislative branch].

“Looking at this, the current president seems to be quite anti-corporate. And quite reform-minded.”

You can’t just believe a politician who shouts about reform. In the history of Korea, there hasn’t been a politician who hasn’t called for reform, but there are only a handful of cases where reform has actually been properly implemented.

“But you can tell by looking at his actions and how he treats those around him.”

If he focuses on small businesses rather than large corporations, it should be seen as a stronger reform tendency.

Of course, it’s common for a president to focus on national decisions, but that’s when corruption occurs in small places, taking advantage of that.

And while large corporations can give huge bribes, small businesses can’t give very large bribes.

“And looking at the treatment…”

“It means there are no good words coming from within his own party either.”

“Then it means he’s been severely disliked by the vested interests.”

Politicians often antagonize each other. And there are many reasons for that. Even within the same party, they antagonize each other, divide into factions, and tear each other apart. That’s politics.

There have even been cases where they tried to impeach a president from their own party.

“But when it comes to the president, the meaning of antagonism becomes a bit complicated.”

Different factions?

If you become president, you transcend factions.

To be precise, you are the core of the faction.

So, they don’t antagonize the president because of different factions.

It’s not on the same level.

Even if they don’t get along, the president’s faction and the people from the political rival’s faction clash, but it’s rare for them to directly antagonize the president.

But the current president is clearly being antagonized.

“And in that situation, it almost converges to one case.”

That’s when the president interferes with the rice bowl [livelihood or source of income] of the National Assembly members. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s taking away their seats.

To put it accurately, this happens because the targets of bribes decrease due to his policies.

“Isn’t it ambiguous to judge it as a reform tendency based on that alone?”

“It’s not just that. I also considered the Daeguk Group, which is the core of this case.”

“Daeguk Group?”

“At Daeguk Group, Hong Geun-jong absorbed a large number of Hong Chang-sik’s people and created a new support team. In fact, you can think of it as a lobbying team.”

“So?”

“Creating a new team for lobbying like that means that a lot has gone wrong with lobbying.”

Of course, it’s true that the system didn’t properly pass on to Hong Geun-jong or Hong Woo-jong due to Hong Chang-sik’s sudden death.

“But the politicians probably don’t know that.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Politicians aren’t the type to understand others and accept them, are they?”

Politicians think that they are the standard and others should conform to them.

Protocol can also be seen that way.

To put it nicely, it’s respect for the other party, but to put it badly, it also means ‘kowtow to me.’

“The fact that Hong Geun-jong absorbed them instead of firing them means that the lobbying system Hong Geun-jong had wasn’t working properly, and politicians are likely to think that it’s the president’s fault. In fact, that’s when it happened.”

The timing of the cessation of lobbying at Daeguk Group and the current president’s declaration to strengthen infantry power as part of defense reform coincide subtly. Of course, that’s just a coincidence.

But politicians will think there’s no coincidence in this world.

“Ah, so the antagonism towards the president has increased?”

“That’s right. Humans tend to look for someone to retaliate against for the disadvantages they suffer.”

The important thing is that the current president is distancing himself from Daeguk Group to the point where such a misunderstanding arises.

“Then…”

“If the current president was related to Hong Woo-jong’s murder case, there would be no reason to distance himself like this.”

Rather, they would be closely connected and try to give each other even more benefits.

“Hmm.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Jo Sang-gyu pondered for a long time and chewed on the paper cup for a while.

Then, he said in a slightly relieved voice.

“Then we can assume that Pyo Gi-il handled this alone.”

“That’s probably the case. Pyo Gi-il was the head of the local prosecutor’s office at the time the incident occurred.”

Of course, the current president was a major presidential candidate, but officially he was a member of the National Assembly at the time. In that situation, it’s unlikely that the head of the district prosecutor’s office would report to a member of the National Assembly and share the spoils.

“I’m getting a rough picture.”

As everything fell into place, Jo Sang-gyu felt bitter.

Clearly, that point in time was Hong Woo-jong’s first murder. And Hong Chang-sik, who found out about it, asked Pyo Gi-il to cover up the case, and Pyo Gi-il accepted it.

And Kim Song-rim gave false testimony to cover up the case, and later Kim Song-rim created Sponsornet and started a business.

‘And there’s a high probability that Hong Woo-jong continued hunting through Sponsornet.’

Isn’t a membership fee of 5 million won just pocket change, and isn’t it a site where no one would track you down even if you killed someone, or rather, couldn’t?

There’s no problem since you can get a burner phone [a cheap, disposable cell phone] to exchange contacts for just a few hundred thousand won.

However, looking at the Song Do-jung and Lee Man-tae cases this time, there’s a high probability that Kim Song-rim doesn’t know that fact, and even if he thought it was strange, there’s a high probability that he would have ignored it.

‘And Hong Woo-jong is a cautious guy.’

At this point in time, he’s making mistakes because unexpected variables are popping up in a desperate situation, and Park Do-joon has induced those mistakes, but it’s highly likely that he didn’t just use one phone to continue hunting.

As such, he probably signed up and killed people using various numbers. After all, the site didn’t verify identity.

To be precise, they only check if the number can be called, but they don’t check if the person is really the person in question.

If there’s a server in Korea, that would be impossible, but the United States is a country where that’s not necessary.

In fact, the United States values individual freedom very highly, so giving individuals numbers to manage them or verifying their identity is seen as a serious abuse of power by the state.

So, in many dystopian novels from the United States and Europe, things like national birth and death registration, the assignment of numbers, and the obligation to report residence are presented as dystopian elements of a powerful dictatorship.

Of course, that’s too obvious for Koreans.

‘The important thing is that he didn’t know.’

In other words, tracking him down with that is impossible at this point.

But if it’s murder, especially the murder of a girlfriend, the statute of limitations hasn’t expired yet.

“It won’t be easy.”

“Right?”

But even while calculating that, Jo Sang-gyun said bitterly. Because of Pyo Gi-il.

“Now that guy will be desperate to cover this up.”

Pyo Gi-il probably received huge support and covered this up. But now he’s the Prosecutor General. Would he really let this blow up? Furthermore, Hong Woo-jong is a strong presidential candidate.

“Very naturally, Pyo Gi-il has no choice but to be in the Hong Woo-jong faction.”

If Hong Woo-jong becomes president with a young and powerful image who wants revenge for his father, he needs someone who can support him.

And in that respect, Pyo Gi-il is a very suitable target.

He has a lot of experience, sufficient career, and is corrupt enough to cover up his murder.

“It’s not impossible to push him to become president in the future through a suitable deal.”

And realistically, with the support of two former presidents, the possibility of becoming president in the future cannot be ignored.

“Whatever I do, I have to get rid of Pyo Gi-il first…”

Jo Sang-gyu couldn’t help but worry.

If they’ve become this close, Pyo Gi-il has to cover up the case no matter what.

‘The difficulty is skyrocketing, this.’

Park Do-joon also felt bitter. It’s a relief that the president isn’t involved, but the Prosecutor General is by no means easy.

Furthermore, it’s unlikely that the Prosecutor General ate all that huge bribe alone, so if something happens, there’s a very high probability that the surrounding politicians will rise up like a swarm of bees to cover up the case.

‘No, the bribe isn’t the problem.’

The so-called Prosecutor’s Office cabinet. There’s a rumor that if that opens, three-quarters of the National Assembly members in Korea will be blown away.

So, even though there’s clearly a separation of powers and the National Assembly has the power to impeach the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Assembly members have always been weaker than the Prosecutor’s Office.

Even if they take bribes, even if they fabricate cases and the country is turned upside down, even if they fabricate espionage cases, the National Assembly has never impeached a prosecutor in history.

Is it because they’re clean or righteous? No. It’s because they’re afraid of their cabinet being opened.

Even if a small number of National Assembly members demand impeachment, the vast majority of corrupt National Assembly members refuse impeachment. That’s the reality.

“In fact, you have to see this as fighting the judicial system itself.”

Jo Sang-gyu looked at Park Do-joon worriedly, saying that he had to fight not against a corrupt individual, but against the judicial system of Korea itself.

“I know what kind of guy you are, but that’s only to a certain extent. It’s the system itself. It’s not something that will end just by blowing away a few of the top guys.”

Park Do-joon has blown away a lot of high-ranking people, but he has never blown away the Prosecutor General.

Daeguk Group and Hyunseong Group are behind Park Do-joon, but even their power has limitations when it comes to the Prosecutor General.

Because the Prosecutor’s Office cabinet contains a lot of secrets about Daeguk Group and Hyunseong Group.

Hyunseong Group or Daeguk Group must have used huge bribes, but would the Prosecutor’s Office not know that? There’s no way. Even if they really operated cleanly, the Prosecutor’s Office has the ability to create crimes.

In fact, it’s not just once or twice.