The Chaebol Returns To The Presidency 1967 [EN]: Chapter 112

112. Shaking Hands with the Invisible Hand

The President’s reception room.

The Prime Minister of Israel, age 50, flew directly to Korea with the new Director of Mossad [Israel’s national intelligence agency].

It was his first visit to the East Asian continent.

The Prime Minister shook hands with the President and introduced the new Director.

“This is Kaiman, the new Director of Mossad.”

Kaiman greeted him.

The former Director of Mossad was dismissed and replaced for ignoring Korean intelligence regarding the Munich incident.

The three Munich heroes who had been waiting entered.

The Israeli Prime Minister stepped forward and bowed politely.

“Thank you for protecting our athletes. If it weren’t for you, a tragedy would have occurred. As you are soldiers, we have prepared military medals from Israel.”

“Thank you.”

The Israeli Prime Minister awarded them Israeli military medals.

Israel is known for being stingy with military medals.

Even in the famous Six-Day War [a brief but significant armed conflict fought in 1967], only seven people received military medals.

Although it was the lowest grade of military medal, it was the first time it had been awarded to foreigners.

The Prime Minister and the Director of Mossad came to Korea for two reasons.

Having completed their first mission, they began their second.

*

The President’s office.

The President, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Director Kaiman held a private meeting.

The Prime Minister looked at the Korean tea set on the table with interest.

“We are in the desert, so we don’t have this tea culture.”

“Tea clears the mind and is perfect for conversation. I have prepared a set as a gift.”

“Ah, thank you.”

With cups of tea steaming in front of them, the official meeting began.

The Israeli Prime Minister said.

“I heard you want to form an alliance between Mossad and the Korean Central Intelligence Agency?”

“That’s right. Geopolitically and diplomatically, I don’t think the two countries’ interests conflict.”

“Hmm, can we say that the benefits are increased? Korea is an oil-producing country, so it is in a position to support OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries].”

“OPEC urges countries to support Arab countries and cut off diplomatic ties with Israel in order to buy their oil, but Korea is an oil-producing country, so there is no need to do that. Korea is more confident than anyone else in OPEC. And as you saw this time, we actively helped Israel.”

“Our information is concentrated in the Arab world, so it won’t be helpful to Korea.”

Mossad’s intelligence network was superior to that of the United States, so they thought that cooperation with Korea would be a loss for them.

In fact, Mossad was monitoring the trends of the West, regardless of whether they were allies or enemies.

The President said.

“We are interested in communist countries. And Mossad’s Asian intelligence network is weak. As you saw this time, Black September [a Palestinian militant organization] was supported by West Germany, not by Arab countries. How would you have known this?”

Director Kaiman asked.

“Are you saying that this terrorist attack was also a prepared operation?”

“Hahaha, I hope you don’t think it’s a heroic tale of resourceful and brave shooting athletes, as reported in the newspaper?”

“…….”

The Prime Minister and Director Kaiman looked at each other with surprised eyes.

The President said.

“Even though they are soldiers, would Olympic athletes prepare homemade explosives and hunting knives made in West Germany in their accommodations?”

“…….”

“Do you think it’s a coincidence that the Korean accommodations were in a perfect location to monitor the Israeli athletes’ accommodations, and that they discovered them at 4 a.m. and rushed in armed with sports guns?”

Director Kaiman nodded.

“The secret of the homemade bombs has been solved. At first, I thought they had made them, but when I interrogated them, they said they only had military grenades.”

The President said, drinking his tea.

“Hahaha, intelligence has the blind spot of not knowing what you don’t know. You may be proud that Mossad’s intelligence is the best in the world, but there are gaps like this time.”

“Hmm….”

“We are not suggesting sharing organizations or information. We are suggesting creating a channel to mutually provide only the information that each country needs. Then, cooperation will be possible while maintaining the secrecy of each information pool.”

The two nodded.

The President made an even more attractive proposal.

“I know that Mossad has about 35,000 Sayanim [Jewish volunteers living abroad who assist Mossad]. It must cost a lot to maintain them, right?”

That was true. It was impossible to cover with the country’s taxes.

They were receiving slush funds from Jewish tycoons such as the Rothschild family.

“Your Excellency has done a lot of research on Mossad.”

“I studied a little. We will pay 1/3 of the operating expenses, so please allow us to mobilize Sayanim for our special missions.”

The Prime Minister wavered slightly.

“Sayanim? Are you going to carry out assassinations or regime change operations?”

“That’s right. They are a point-to-point organization that doesn’t know who is giving the instructions anyway, right? You could say they are special mercenaries.”

“I’ll have to think about this.”

“We’re just trying to double the efficiency of an existing organization anyway. We will pay for the operating expenses with oil.”

The Prime Minister’s pupils shook violently at the word oil.

Israel would not discover an oil field comparable to Saudi Arabia until 2004.

Israel’s economy was groaning under high oil prices and OPEC’s embargo, so it was an attractive offer.

“You will pay with crude oil?”

“Of course. And if Israel imports Korean crude oil, we will sell it at 80% of the price.”

“80%… Your Excellency, how about 75%?”

“Hmm, 78% seems appropriate. Instead, transportation is Israel’s responsibility, and the crude oil provided by Korea cannot be sold to other countries.”

“Of course. We need oil too, so where would we sell it?”

In this way, a secret exchange of information, special missions, and oil was concluded.

During Chairman Wang’s time, he was dragged into the Jewish forces on Wall Street and almost drowned in the deep Caribbean Sea.

This was because he dared to enter the Jewish oil business, gold and diamond business.

At that time, he learned that the world was being controlled by an invisible hand.

Today, he shook hands with that invisible hand.

To rule the world, money, weapons, and information are essential.

But you also need to add a special mission organization to this.

This way, you can efficiently eliminate enemies without going to war, and you can lead the direction even in peacetime.

It was significant that he had become a colleague, not a competitor, with the Jews.

Now, all that remained was to build a network as strong and reliable as the Jewish one for the Korean intelligence network.

It would take quite a while, just as it took the Jews centuries to build a human global network.

* * *

National Assembly.

The Speaker of the National Assembly declared the passed bill.

“I declare that the Disaster Safety Act has been passed with the approval of 2/3 of the members present!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

This bill was initiated by the President and strongly ordered as a result.

Some lawmakers pointed out that the industry was shrinking due to overly strict fire laws and building safety diagnosis laws, but the majority supported preventive measures.

The vote was a free vote based on the opinions of each member, without party lines from the ruling and opposition parties.

Since when, the colors of the ruling and opposition parties have faded, and party lines have disappeared for livelihood bills.

The government organization also established the Central Disaster Headquarters directly under the Prime Minister to reorganize the mess of disaster countermeasures and create a comprehensive control tower.

Safety measures are always taken after the loss, so this time the President took preemptive measures.

*

Wow Apartment in Mapo, Seoul.

The construction safety inspection team thoroughly inspected the safety of the Wow Apartment.

The residents’ representative grumbled.

“Why are you making such a fuss about safety inspections in a new apartment that hasn’t even been completed for two months?”

Surprisingly, Wow Apartment was completed in just six months, with 15 buildings of 5 floors each.

Even with the development of construction methods in the 21st century, it takes at least two and a half years to complete an apartment building, so six months was a super-speedy shoddy construction.

During Chairman Wang’s time, one building collapsed in the middle of the night, covering shacks located under a steep slope, killing 33 residents who were sleeping in the apartment and injuring 38 others.

It was the problematic apartment where a major disaster occurred in which one person sleeping in the shacks below also died.

The inspection team explained the inspection results to the residents’ representatives.

“Serious ground subsidence and cracks in the load-bearing walls have been found in the east complex. The foundation supporting the hill is on the verge of collapse.”

“Oh, come on, look at this. New houses are meant to be repaired and used.”

“It must be demolished immediately, not repaired.”

“What? Demolition after only a month of occupancy? Then why did you issue the completion inspection?”

“I don’t know the process, but it should be subject to investigation.”

The construction company gave a few bucks to Seoul city officials, conducted a formal inspection, and received a completion certificate.

Demolition was ordered immediately.

However, the residents strongly protested, filed an administrative lawsuit, and refused to evacuate.

Upon hearing this news, the President instructed the Prime Minister.

“Evacuate them even if you have to use public power. It will collapse soon.”

“Your Excellency, if public power arbitrarily infringes on property rights, it will face public resistance.”

“The law has been passed in the National Assembly. Do it according to the law.”

“First, I will try to persuade the residents as much as possible.”

“Hold the construction company responsible and promise to pay for relocation and reconstruction. You must do it quickly.”

The Prime Minister was dissatisfied with why the President was urging him so much.

On the day of the accident, at night.

Rumble~

The apartment shook violently and suddenly collapsed, and the building fell forward and collapsed.

Crash!

One apartment building collapsed.

“Save people!”

Screams were heard from three households who refused to evacuate.

Five people died and nine were injured.

They were unable to completely prevent the accident, but they were able to avoid a major disaster.

The Prime Minister then understood why the President had been urging him so much.

And he bitterly reflected on himself for not pushing harder.

*

Daeyeonkak Hotel.

Fire safety inspectors checked the fire hydrants.

He asked the hotel facilities manager.

“Why is the power to the emergency bell turned off here?”

“Well, it sometimes malfunctions and makes guests uncomfortable, so I turned it off.”

“Try operating it.”

He turned on the power.

The firefighter lit a match to check if it was working.

The emergency bell did not ring.

“What is this luggage piled up in the fire escape?”

The hotel manager said.

“I’m sorry. I’ll clean it up.”

“Do you know that there are not enough fire extinguishers installed?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

The firefighter checked the expiration date of the fire extinguishers.

“This is three years past its expiration date.”

“…….”

“Bring me the regular fire drill record book for the workers.”

“Yes, we just trained and didn’t keep records.”

“The law has been changed this time, so large-scale accommodation facilities must install sprinklers, but why haven’t they been installed?”

“I placed the order, but I haven’t been able to start yet. I was planning to start construction as soon as the peak season is over and the number of guests decreases.”

“Why isn’t there an LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] gas manager assigned to the coffee shop on the first floor?”

“I didn’t know I had to appoint a manager.”

“Why is the door to the rooftop locked? There are few emergency stairs, and if you lock this, there is no place to evacuate.”

“I locked it to prevent suicide accidents and smoking on the rooftop. I’ll open it.”

“None of this hotel’s fire safety meets the standards. I’m going to issue a business suspension.”

“What? A business suspension? You used to check it formally, but why are you being so strict this year?”