George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 35

< Episode 34 >

“Oh.”

The Seoul cityscape of 2001 came into view through the helicopter window. I wondered what it would feel like to come to Korea, but I didn’t feel anything special. It was just, ‘Ah, I’m in Korea.’ The view of Seoul from the sky wasn’t much different from my memories. Well, 2001 was a time when even the buildings that would be built in 2019 were already up.

Of course, that was partly because I was looking from the sky. To be honest, even convenience store brands were completely different back then. However, vehicles, buildings, and stores were just subtly different. It was the heyday of stationery stores, tearooms were more common than cafes, and hamburgers were considered a treat.

‘Was 2001 when StarCraft was at its peak?’

The IT bubble had already burst, but PC rooms and StarCraft survived and successfully established themselves as a unique Korean culture. It’s almost a joke, but there’s a reason why StarCraft is included with traditional folk games like Hwatu [Korean card game] and Yut Nori [traditional Korean board game].

‘Well, it has nothing to do with me.’

Wouldn’t it be unseemly for someone who is the president to go to another country and play games? Come to think of it, there was a 40-year-old traditional Gukbap [Korean rice soup] restaurant I used to frequent. I wonder if the taste is still the same?

The taste of a restaurant changes when the owner changes. Well, that’s a natural thing to say, but what I mean is, isn’t a person an animal that changes remarkably overnight?

So, strictly speaking, aren’t the owner in 2001 and the owner in 2019 completely different people? Then, will the taste really be the same?

‘I should stop by there for Gukbap after a long time.’

“We will be landing soon.”

‘Is that the Yongsan Garrison?’

The Yongsan Garrison that came into my view was more substantial and larger in scale than I had expected. In 2019, the Yongsan Garrison was gradually being closed down because the core facilities were being moved to Pyeongtaek. Interestingly, Bush’s influence was strong in this relocation process.

I’m talking about the real George W. Bush, not me. He was unhappy with the fact that the U.S. military was occupying expensive areas such as Seoul and Gyeonggi. To be precise, he thought that no citizen of any country would welcome foreign troops stationed in their capital, and that was indeed the case. At the time, Bush pressured the U.S. Forces Korea to move their units to areas with lower population density.

George Bush was disgustingly kind.

“Hmm!”

I took a deep breath in and out. Is this Korean air?

‘I want to go back home right now!’

The White House, I mean. Damn it. I don’t miss it at all. Honestly, it just feels like I’ve come to another country. Maybe if I walk the streets of the neighborhood where I used to live, I’ll feel more at home?

“We will take you by car from here.”

Cadillac One was there. Originally, I should have taken Marine One for the helicopter, but there wasn’t enough time to bring the helicopter, so I barely managed to bring Cadillac One to Korea the day before.

“What’s the schedule?”

“First, there will be a preliminary talk at 7:30, followed by a social dinner at 7:45. After that, you will stay at the Baekje Hotel. Tomorrow, there will be a ROK-U.S. [Republic of Korea-United States] summit at the Cheong Wa Dae [the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential residence] reception room. There will be an expanded meeting and luncheon at the Jiphyeon Hall, and a joint ROK-U.S. press conference at 1 p.m.….”

“No, that’s enough. Keep the schedule after dinner open today. There’s a place I want to visit for a while.”

“Yes?”

After all, I have to go there at least once, no matter what.

“Where are you going?”

“Gukbap restaurant.”

* * *

George Bush, who got out of Cadillac One, didn’t look tired at all, even though he had been on a fighter jet for almost half a day. Like any other American president, he had a dignified stature, and his steps were as wide as his dignified stature. And as much as his stride, President Kim Ji-hoon’s heart was burning.

First of all, as the head of the country that was the party to this fighter jet commotion, only President Kim Ji-hoon himself knew how embarrassed he was. It was good that he came to Korea before Japan, but he didn’t know why.

There were mountains of things he wanted to ask about national interests, but he was going crazy because he wanted to satisfy his personal curiosity from within. The question he wanted to ask the most had been decided from the moment he heard the news of George Bush’s visit to Korea.

No, why a fighter jet? What is the reason for coming in an F-18F instead of the existing SAM27000 or SAM28000! Why? Why on earth!

Even though it was a place where he had to distinguish between public and private matters, he was so eager to ask this one question that his mouth was so itchy that he was going crazy.

‘Should I ask? Should I not? No, but….’

When people are so dumbfounded, they become cautious even about asking questions. Do you know how dumbfounded he was when he heard that he was going to take a fighter jet and land at Osan Air Base? At first, he was so dumbfounded that he thought they were throwing farm jokes in the sacred Cheong Wa Dae.

So, he even asked the U.S. Embassy directly several times as an exception. Thanks to that, he got a lot of information, but he was going crazy because they told him all the other information, but there was no answer as to why he was riding a fighter jet.

‘Okay, I’ll ask this one question and die.’

President Kim Ji-hoon, who finally made up his mind, decided to take the lead. He licked his parched lips once to moisten them and loaded a question containing the doubts of everyone in the world on his tongue.

“Why did you take a fighter jet for this visit to Korea?”

“Ah, that’s….”

Bush had a set answer. To be exact, it wasn’t the answer that Bush had thought of, but the answer that State Department officials had barely come up with three hours before Bush arrived in Korea after repeatedly rubbing their heads on desks and keyboards until they went insane. That’s why the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs could only be vague no matter how much they asked.

“I’m going to strongly sanction North Korea this time.”

And Bush loved that answer. In fact, Bush had been thinking about it to some extent. Whether he liked it or not, the only thing North Korea could do was to make nuclear weapons or something close to them. At least until 2019, there had never been a weapon that could compete with nuclear weapons, so they would eventually be obsessed with nuclear weapons. It was about time they were preparing for a hydrogen bomb test, so it was a perfect fit.

Of course, Bush just wanted to ride a fighter jet, but it was such a good excuse because the time and situation were right. Bush was relieved inside. I mean, it would have been a diplomatic problem if I had just passed it on like this.

From now on, I decided to consider the situation a little more and ride a fighter jet. Don’t ride? That option had been left in Kim Kap-hwan’s body for a long time.

“North Korea?”

“Let’s discuss the details about North Korea at tomorrow’s informal meeting.”

Anyway, Bush didn’t like this situation. Listening to the same content twice felt like taking an English reading class in school. Once in Korean, once in English!

What a crazy party. But Bush couldn’t say, ‘I know Korean! Get out of here, translator! Hehe!’ At best, ‘Hello~. Thank you~’ would be natural with awkward pronunciation.

There was also a problem with national prestige. Frankly speaking, where in the world is there a leader who doesn’t know English? No, there might be, but anyway, there was a reason why they deliberately didn’t use English even if they knew it and used their own language and had an interpreter.

‘What is it? Is something bothering you?’

Of course, President Kim Ji-hoon’s heart was burning once again. No, it was only the other day that we barely caught a reconciliation line, so why are you sanctioning North Korea? Why on earth?

Okay, let’s say that’s the case. President Kim Ji-hoon himself doesn’t trust North Korea very much, so it could be said to be fortunate. The fact that he came all the way here on a fighter jet for the purpose of sanctioning North Korea means that he has evidence or circumstantial evidence enough to disrupt the reconciliation line he has built up so far, right?

Okay, that’s fine too. But I don’t know why you’re frowning so much when you see Korean food. Does it not suit your taste? Looking at the speed at which you keep pushing it into your mouth, it doesn’t seem like it doesn’t suit your taste, but I don’t know why your expression becomes more and more fierce as the speed of your chopsticks increases.

‘No! This is not it!’

There were things called Korean food at the dinner, but it was delicious, but what kind of Korean food is this? Frankly, except for a few familiar dishes, it was alien food. Galbi [Korean BBQ short ribs] was familiar, but when I actually ate it, it wasn’t the taste I remembered.

It was Korean food, but there were things like caviar, truffles, and salmon that couldn’t be found in traditional Korean food, so it was closer to fusion food than Korean food. I don’t know if it’s because Bush is a Western president. Or I don’t know if it’s originally coming out in this shape.

Of course, it’s not that it’s not delicious, but it felt like I was expecting a regular pepperoni pizza and got an Italian traditional pizza. The genre is similar, but the inside is completely different.

‘Well, it’s delicious, so it doesn’t matter.’

As the last piece of meat completed a bungee jump without a rope on the tongue platform, Bush finally straightened his expression. In fact, it was closer to the side where his expression naturally straightened because he was not aware of it himself, but that’s how it looked to others.

Formal words were exchanged as a courtesy, and the dinner ended that day.

Still, Korean officials were focusing all their nerves and actions on ‘reasoning’ to guess what President Bush would say tomorrow, and President Kim Ji-hoon was busy grilling the National Intelligence Service because North Korean sanctions came out of President Bush’s mouth. Thanks to this, the National Intelligence Service was holding a historically deep joint-cracking competition that had been passed down from the days of the Agency for National Security Planning [South Korean intelligence agency, now the NIS].

All intelligence and security agencies, from East Asia, including Japan, North Korea, China, and Taiwan, to the world, were racking their brains in some way after the 9/11 attacks. When the United States moves, the world moves. The meaning of that saying that someone said was being proven, whether they liked it or not.

Anyway, as much as the world has become laundry being spun urgently in the washing machine called the United States, a unique chemical reaction was raging like a typhoon in Bush’s brain.

The stomach is an organ that is positive in everything, so if the brain sincerely wants to eat more, it sacrifices its body to increase its size several times to make room for food to enter. Of course, this self-sacrificing physical organ is common to all mankind, so George W. Bush’s stomach was also working in the same way.

‘Ah, I want to eat Gukbap! Salt! Pepper! And hot Gukbap with lots of MSG [monosodium glutamate]!’

The Gukbap DNA engraved in Kim Kap-hwan’s soul opened its eyes.