George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 253

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The Korean Peninsula, once the world’s largest and most dangerous powder keg, had been downgraded to a more manageable situation.

If people truly understood the magnitude of this shift, they would shower it with praise endlessly. However, those living on the Korean Peninsula struggled to fully grasp it, focusing instead on finding the silver linings.

For example, conservative parties transitioned from staunch anti-communist stances to subtly pro-North Korea rhetoric. This wasn’t necessarily an endorsement of the North Korean regime, but rather an attempt to embrace those who had suffered under communism with the perceived benevolence of democracy and capitalism. However, capitalism was already facing criticism for exacerbating the wealth gap. Yet, even with limited government intervention, this outcome was spun as a victory for democracy and, by extension, capitalism.

Meanwhile, the fact that the current administration had effectively undermined the previous North Korea reconciliation policy was quietly swept under the rug. In any case, the North Korea reconciliation policy became largely irrelevant the moment unification was achieved.

Sure, these details could be documented, but those facts or their arrangement on paper no longer held significant sway over the real world.

“What a mess.”

The President of South Korea, now effectively in control of twice the territory, muttered to himself.

By ‘mess,’ he wasn’t just referring to the state of the country. The President’s office was also physically chaotic. Documents were piled haphazardly, and classified materials were sometimes mixed in with general correspondence.

However, his concern extended beyond the state of his office. The entire administration was in disarray.

The only reason things had progressed relatively smoothly thus far was because they had anticipated the possibility of near-future unification and had been steadily preparing for it. The preparation period was short, but it proved sufficient to respond to this unexpected situation.

Unfortunately, resources weren’t abundant, leading to the current predicament.

‘Everything is truly messed up. This isn’t right. This can’t be considered proper governance!’

It wasn’t that there were no solutions. They simply needed to differentiate. There was no need for the government to officially differentiate. They just had to turn a blind eye to the unethical tyranny of corporations. By doing so, about 90% of the problems the current administration was facing could be solved at once.

To be precise, it was a case of ‘covering the eyes and ringing the bell’ [a Korean idiom for ignoring a problem], but that alone would allow the South Korean economy to function properly. It would simply mean sacrificing innocent North Korean people as scapegoats. This plan was, in fact, under serious consideration.

Although the circumstances are somewhat different, do you know why the great powers worked so hard to secure colonies in the 19th century? It was enough to have a place to vent dissatisfaction and keep the market and economy running. The case of discrimination is different, but the reason is the same.

‘The problem is that if I do that, I’ll become less than human garbage, let alone the president.’

Hyun Won-seop, the individual, didn’t want to face such a moral dilemma, but Hyun Won-seop, the President, couldn’t afford to avoid it.

What is a president? It signifies the highest servant of the people. However, the interpretation of that service varies from president to president. Some believe that serving means transparently reflecting the will of the people in politics without reservation, while others believe that the country must be saved first, regardless of popular opinion.

Either extreme will ultimately ruin the country and its people. Therefore, these two perspectives must be appropriately balanced to effectively govern.

It was a perfectly fundamental statement that cut off the strange and bizarre branches of detailed politics, but it was clearly the foundation of modern state management.

But the reality is not like that. It’s because the people are so diverse. Because of that, each person’s disposition has its own party, and the party represents the voice of the people.

The president also has a political party. So, in the end, it seems like it will move according to the ‘will of the majority,’ which is the flower of democracy, but in fact, that’s not even the case.

Then why does extreme wealth inequality exist, why is the trickle-down effect learned in textbooks just the sweet talk of the rich, and why is it said that a small number of vested interests dominate the country? The majority is always the poor!

Politics is like that. It’s about gathering all these complex things in one place and somehow forcibly leading them, believing that one’s own will is the will of the people.

“I’ll clean it up.”

The density of thought was high, but the time was fleeting, befitting the theory of relativity. The people who heard the president’s muttering also knew that he wasn’t talking about the state of the office, but shouldn’t things be clean from the immediate front to change the state of the country cleanly?

“Let’s start the political affairs. Is the annexation of North Korea going well?”

Everyone in the office avoided answering, but the Minister of National Defense opened his mouth and answered, as they couldn’t remain silent.

Originally, they were planning to hold a separate meeting and meet elsewhere, but they had to have a frank conversation in the office for about a month. This was because there were so many overlapping tasks that there was physically not enough time to hold them separately.

“As you know, there are too many problems. It’s to the point where it doesn’t seem right. The Ministry of Unification is especially so. It’s hard to say, but five people have actually died from overwork.”

Originally, which department was in charge of North Korea when it was divided? To be more direct, it was the ‘National Intelligence Service and the Hana Center’ [a government organization that helps North Korean defectors settle in South Korea].

To be exact, it’s the ‘Ministry of Unification,’ but the most intense impression left in the minds of ‘North Korean defectors’ comes from these two organizations. The Ministry of Unification itself sounds like a department for unification just by its name, but in reality, it was closer to the North Korean diplomatic system than for unification.

It’s no exaggeration to say that almost no one seriously thought about unification until the 21st century.

Of course, there were people who did, but the upper echelons didn’t really think so. After the North Korea reconciliation and cooperation policy officially came to the surface, they were forced to think about unification, but anyway, the current situation was not something that the Ministry of Unification could handle alone.

It’s not that the Ministry of Unification is handling everything, but that’s how it is. In reality, the Hana Center and the National Intelligence Service were the busiest.

In the case of Hana Center, they were dispatched to North Korea on a large scale and had to issue large-scale recruitment notices.

This was the same for the National Intelligence Service, but the case of the National Intelligence Service was a bit different from that of Hana Center. After separating and reorganizing the North Korea-dedicated team from the National Intelligence Service, they had to reorganize it into a new organization, whether temporary or permanent.

“I’m going crazy. They’re doing their best to the point of dying, but the situation doesn’t seem to be getting better.”

It might be better if they could collect more taxes from the South and invest in the North, but who on earth welcomes tax increases?

“We also have to amend the constitution, but I have no idea how to do this.”

Even this was said in the parliament yesterday.

“Now North Korea is our land. Of course, the residents of North Korea are also our residents. So shouldn’t we give them the right to vote?”

“It’s not too late to give them about two years to properly educate them on what democracy and capitalism are.”

“What? You’re planning to bring them into your party in the meantime! You’re plotting a National Assembly election and using constitutional amendment as an excuse! I think five years is enough for them to know what rights they have!”

“Five years is too long. Let’s make it four years! Four years is more than enough for them to realize what rights they have.”

“Does four years make sense? No, does it even make sense to educate perfectly normal people in the first place? The current residents are actually people who did not sympathize with the rebels at the time. There’s no need to educate them!”

“You communist bastard! Have you said everything you wanted to say?”

“A communist in this sacred time? That, that guy is crazy! Do you want to die?”

And then a fistfight. Well, it was a common occurrence in the National Assembly siege, but cases of swearing or fists flying due to excessive work stress were not uncommon.

Even if the members of the National Assembly are people with superhuman patience, they are still human. The human mind and body have a limit, and when that limit is exceeded, the body automatically does what it has to do. In this case, it was violence.

‘I’m going crazy. I can’t see an answer no matter what I do.’

The National Assembly is a mess, the documents are a mess, and the country is a mess. The only fortunate thing was that the nationalist sentiment was still intact.

‘First of all, the population has increased.’

In fact, this was bigger than anything else. What they gained by acquiring the North was not half-dried natural resources or Mount Baekdu [a mountain considered sacred in Korean culture], the mountain of the nation. It was people. By increasing the number of people, they solved the future population problem for now. They will face more problems in the immediate future, though.

‘The population is good, but what am I really going to do about welfare?’

Welfare isn’t just about giving it to all citizens and being done with it. They have to collect ‘taxes,’ but there’s no place to get those taxes.

That’s why they can’t collect taxes from the North Korean people right now. What’s really fortunate is that the infrastructure is being laid normally.

If they didn’t have this, they would have been so overwhelmed that they would have had to consider even vomiting out the North Korean land. Fortunately, the biggest obstacle, the infrastructure problem, was solved, and the problem of corporate entry was also solved. The reason why they expressed it as dispatch instead of entry was because that’s actually the case.

To be honest, North Korea wasn’t that attractive of a market, even as a lie. The only thing that was worth looking at was that a considerable amount of American capital had entered, and that foreign capital would continue to pour in.

South Korean companies had to dispatch with patriotism alone. And the only ones who could do that kind of patriotism marketing were large companies that could recover from losses elsewhere or young entrepreneurs with big dreams.

‘A way to not differentiate the people and not increase taxes……’

Where on earth is that kind of paradise-like method? If he knew that kind of thing, would a human named Hyun Won-seop be the President of South Korea? He would have been the President of the world.

“Looking at it like this, there’s no other Korean Emperor 2nd.”

“The US President’s obsession with Korea is definitely abnormal.”

The minister trailed off. Clearly, looking at his domestic politics, it’s absolutely impossible for him to be like that just because he has a high preference for Korean culture, but he was obsessed with it strangely. Even if you look at it, it wasn’t like that from the beginning, but it was visible after he took office as president.

Because of that, they started observing him with a huge amount of money, but all they could find out was that he was really crazy about his work and that he had a somewhat protein- and fiber-biased food preference. And they have all withdrawn now.

Maintaining that in a situation where even a penny is lacking was nothing short of madness.

‘Should I ask that person for a favor?’

‘Selling the future to buy the present’ didn’t seem like a bad idea. Isn’t the investment fund such a concept in the first place? In fact, there was a better way.

There was an option called Japan, but touching that seemed to shake the very foundation of the current government. Hyun Won-seop believed that the current public sentiment had the power to bring down even the president.

‘What am I really going to do?’

Without even finding a proper solution, the President of South Korea’s worries deepened.