by Van Torrey
The cynical General Rhee pursed his lips and replied, “The General will be pleased to hear about your enthusiastic response to the political and social changes taking place in North Korea, Minister. However, your words will soon be measured against your deeds. Soon the Brilliant New Light will spread to the entire peninsula and Asia itself, and our Foreign Minister will be at the spearhead of those diplomatic efforts. The Chong family served the purpose of making North Korea independent of the decadent imperialists for a short time after the People’s War, but we must now move forward to become a dominant force throughout Asia and a major player on the world stage,” replied General Rhee stoically. “You have made a good choice of being a part of this Brilliant New Light and renouncing the darkness of the past.”
*
Foreign Minister Lee was subsequently escorted to the Spartan setting of General Fhang’s large office. It became obvious to Lee that General Fhang was intensely focused on the business of handling the many immediate challenges facing the DPRK. In addition to a large plain wooden desk, there were several map tables, one containing an exquisitely detailed three-D model of the Korean peninsula, showing the disposition of many strategic military and industrial sites of both North and South Korea. Another table was cordoned off with a perimeter barrier protected by electronic sensors and covered with a black cloth. Lee correctly assumed this table showed the locations of nuclear enrichment and storage facilities and other secret military sites disguised as commercial structures. In another area of the great room was a map showing agricultural areas and food processing infrastructure. Finally, there was a huge wooden conference table with room for at least twenty chairs. The end opposite General Fhang’s head of the table was dominated by a large video screen mounted high on the wall. There could be no doubt this was surely Command and Control Central for the Brilliant New Light of the DPRK, directed and embodied by General Fhang Jhai himself.
“Good morning, Minister,” intoned Fhang as he observed Lee critically from behind his desk. “I trust your conversation with General Rhee was cordial and mutually agreeable.”
“Yes, general, we understand each other completely,” answered Lee in an attempt to maintain some dignity in light of the thinly veiled threats he had received from Fhang’s second in command.
Fhang gestured for Lee to take a seat on one of the leather club chairs across from his desk and immediately began to quiz him about the arms negotiations in Beijing.
“My sense is that once the Americans saw I was now the principal negotiator for our country, General, they took that as a signal our posture was about to change. Within days they made it known they would respond positively to any new overture from the DPRK. Your direction to me to speak vaguely of reducing our nuclear initiative was seized upon enthusiastically, if not without caution, and this is when we heard of a forthcoming positive response. I believe this will be coming as soon as next week from them, General,” responded Lee evenly.
Lee waited for a verbal response but his remarks were greeted by General Fhang simply sitting quietly in his chair and gazing at a large portrait of him reviewing troops that hung on a wall at the far end of his expansive office.
Minister Lee broke the long silence by adding, “There are rumors that President Braxton himself will be coming to Beijing and visiting the site of the talks in order to encourage progress.”
Fhang had been unaware of such a revelation, and he stood behind his desk in surprise. Fhang looked intently at Lee and said, “Perhaps this is serendipitous, Minister, to have a U.S. President respond personally to a gesture made by me, as the new leader of the DPRK. It will give credence to the Brilliant New Light and give me personal credibility with my Asian brothers. We must not miss this wonderful opportunity.”
Minister Lee, relieved that his meeting with the General was going well, responded enthusiastically. “Yes General, it is obvious that the Americans want these talks to produce some tangible results, however small.”
General Fhang began to pace the room deep in thought for several moments and then returned to his desk. “Minister, I want you to draft a proposal and have it on my desk tomorrow for review. The basic outline will be that the DPRK will mothball the plutonium reactor we have been building, and we will shut down the uranium enrichment plant that has been inspected on a few occasions by the U.N. IAEA people, who are nothing more than spies for the United States. These are significant concessions the Chongs would never have made due to their stiff-necked approach to negotiations with the imperialists. But the Brilliant New Light is more enlightened than what went before. The DPRK will still achieve our goals of nuclear and political parity with the West and our Asian brothers, but we will do so subtly and cautiously rather than with brutish confrontation.”
“Yes, General, I will go to work on such a draft immediately,” said an excited Lee.
“Excellent, Minister. If I approve of the draft, you will leave for Beijing forthwith and deliver our proposal immediately.”
*
As the Foreign Minister reflected on General Rhee’s threatening tirade concerning the expectations of personal loyalty toward General Fhang from those who occupied positions of power in his new regime, and the probable dire negative consequence of disloyalty, he became uncomfortably aware of how close to home this was directed, perhaps unintentionally by General Rhee, but nevertheless so.
If there was a chink in the armor of General Fhang’s recent absolute assumption of power, it was the fact he was purely a soldier with no real-world experience in the nuances of politics or statesmanship. In the DPRK since its founding by the elder Chong “The Great Leader,” if one was not a blood relative or trusted friend the only other path to national power was through the military where Fhang had made his mark. As for the new strategy revealed to him today, Lee knew that success would depend on the DPRK becoming more diplomatically engaged with their Asian brethren. That was a skill set General Fhang would have to depend on from others, at least for the near term, while he felt his way guided by the Brilliant New Light of his political revolution.
Fhang had made the conscious decision to retain Lee as his Foreign Minister as one of the few holdovers from the Chong regime. The rest had been dealt with as severely as the Chongs themselves. But foreign relations were to be the key to the Brilliant New Light. Fhang, even in his infancy as an international politician, knew it would be advantageous having the person representing his government in international forums be seen as having some experience in international councils as well as continuity of purpose with the previous regime, as belligerent and confrontational as they may have seemed to the outside world. Therefore, as risky as it may have seemed to General Fhang during the early days of the transition, he made the decision to take the calculated risk of keeping Lee as his Foreign Minister. The reality that neither man knew enough of the other for there to exist a basis for mutual trust presented serious and subtle problems for each.
Since the arms negotiations were taking place in another country, Fhang would have to trust his Foreign Minister to faithfully present the DPRK proposal both in word and spirit, while not deviating philosophically from General Fhang’s strategy, and with no first-hand executive monitoring. Can this man be fully trusted to convey my wishes while still being loyal to the Brilliant New Light? Fhang asked himself many times over.
As for Lee, several conflicts existed creating a minefield of doubt and confusion for the veteran diplomat, not the least of which was his concern for his personal safety and that of his family. Rumors reaching him while he represented the DPRK in the Beijing talks alleged that General Fhang and his few trusted henchmen, with aid from the People’s Army and the DPRK internal security apparatus, had systematically and brutally purged many of the Chong family’s friends, bureaucratic loyalists, and People’s Party officials. The purge had been swift, ruthless, and without trials for many of those arrested and put to death. Such was the imperative recipe for the success of a coup d’état in a dictatorship as intima
te as the DPRK.
As with all broad-based and lightning fast moves, many of which were carried out in the dead of night by lower ranking Army troops or poorly supervised secret police, many of those caught in the sweeping net of arrests, interrogations, torture, and subsequent execution were plain citizens or bit-player bureaucrats of little consequence who posed no threat to General Fhang and his new regime. “Better to catch a few of the innocent in the big net than to allow a future threat to go free”, was the mantra of the purge. In this case the actions were carried out by the infamous DPRK Ministry of People’s Security led by General Fhang’s brother, Colonel Fhang Woo-jo, as Chief Deputy of that ministry up until the moment of the arrest of Madame Chong and her husband. By preplan, Woo-jo deposed his bosses by force at the exact hour of the Chong’s arrest. In a chilling reminder of events in Nazi Germany in the late 1930’s, many of those caught up in the sweeps of competing DPRK security agencies at the apex of the coup were not properly identified, nor were accurate records kept of their ultimate fate or disposition.
The following morning, after toiling throughout the night, Lee delivered his draft of the proposal for the Beijing Arms Reduction Talks to General Fhang. Lee could sense that the new Leader of the DPRK was enthusiastic about the possibility of President Braxton himself becoming involved in the talks.
“If we can achieve such a breakthrough with the U.S. President essentially endorsing my new proposals, such a fact will give immediate legitimacy to the Brilliant New Light of our revolution,” beamed a pacing General Fhang. “This will immediately separate my brand of diplomacy from the bellicose intransigence of my less enlightened predecessors. With such an implied endorsement this will help allay any concerns the leadership of the People’s Republic of China may have about the swiftness of the change of regime here in our troubled country.”
“Indeed, it will signal positive political change here,” responded Minister Lee, anxious to validate a prediction by his new boss.
After making a few minor changes on the margins of the documents and then initialing each page of the draft, General Fhang handed the document back to Lee and told him to have it officially prepared for his signature with several copies. “You will leave immediately for Beijing, Minister Lee, to present the document to the parties for their discussion. I am sure, given the reluctance of the former DPRK leadership, if one can indeed call it that, to provide any positive dialogue to these proceedings, the others will be pleasantly surprised. Frankly, I expect rapid acceptance of these proposals.”
Fhang continued, “Minister Lee, I think you will now experience some genuine respect from your peers at this conference. You have me and our enlightened new diplomacy to thank for that. Perhaps soon you will even be going to Washington as a recognized and respected envoy of our country.”
“Thank you sir. Before I leave I have a small request. As you know, I was in Beijing during...the change..., your assumption of leadership, and since I have been back I have spent every minute here in the executive compound. I would like to see my family, at least briefly.” General Fhang, mildly annoyed at the distraction from focus on the new proposal by a trifling personal matter of one of his staff, responded quietly, “Yes, yes of course, Minister. I will arrange it and have them come here. It is not safe for you to travel even within the capital at the moment, and this must be done quickly in the interest of time. Who is it you wish to see?”
“Well, sir, my only family consists of my brother, Colonel Lee Su-gok of the 30th People’s Armor Brigade, at least that is where he was last posted, and my girlfriend, Hwang Su-jan, who works in the Internal Security Ministry here in the capital.”
“Girlfriend?” asked General Fhang curiously. “I thought you had a wife.”
“She died two years ago, sir. She contracted cancer and was unable to receive proper treatment as her birth family was considered disloyal by the Chong family.”
“You have no children?” asked Fhang cautiously.
“No sir. My wife was unable to bear a child, probably due to her undiagnosed illness.”
General Fhang averted the gaze of his Foreign Minister and bought time by shuffling some papers on his desk. Then he responded, “Yes, I see. This was most unfortunate, Minister. Hopefully these types of things may improve with the Brilliant New Light of our revolution. Please go see to these changes in the draft and have the formal documents prepared. This should take several hours, and meantime I will make the visiting arrangements. You have done well, and I have confidence in you.”
With the dismissal of Minister Lee, General Fhang sent for his assistant, Miss Yong, and asked her to find the family of Minister Lee and have them brought to the compound as quickly as possible for reconciliation with his Foreign Minister. “Let us get this over quickly,” he admonished, “there is much to do and we have little time.”
A little over an hour later an ashen-faced Miss Yong, accompanied by Fhang’s deputy, General Rhee, entered General Fhang’s office. “Yes, what is it?” asked Fhang bruskly.
Fhang noticed that Miss YONG was holding a sheaf of papers with trembling hands and would not make eye contact with him. It was General Rhee who stepped forward and asked for permission to speak. “Sir, I am afraid that we have very bad news about Minister Lee’s family members he asked about.”
“News?...What news?” replied Fhang. “I asked that they be brought here to meet with Minister Lee.”
“Sir, Miss Yong has searched the records and I have made some personal inquiries within the Ministry of People’s Security. There can be no doubt...”
“Doubt?...about what?” asked Fhang absently.
General Rhee braced himself, paused for a brief moment and replied solemnly, “Sir, both the people whom Minister Lee seeks to see were arrested several days ago during a sweep of those suspected of maintaining loyalty to the Chong family and were executed after interrogation and confession of their crimes. The only unanswered question is the disposition of their remains.”
Fhang, stunned by the stark revelation, but with his practiced self-control masking his concern, remained seated at his desk pretending to peruse the various papers spread before him. As his assistants waited apprehensively for his reply, Fhang’s mind raced with the potential consequences of such unsettling news. Much thought has been put into the new proposals for presentation at the arms talks. It is vital to get the proposals presented when the American President was personally involved. It is important that they be presented by the experienced Minister Lee who is the last vestige of continuity between the Chong regime and the Brilliant New Light and, as such, a known quantity to the other participants. Lee cannot be made aware of and distracted by this shocking development at this precise moment. The impending, and now impossible, reconciliation between Minister Lee and his family will have to be postponed until the arms talks progressed forward favorably for General Fhang’s new regime, he reasoned. I will deal with Minister Lee at a more convenient time.
“Although I am disturbed by this news, the outcome cannot be helped at this point. If these people were traitors to the Brilliant New Light and to the Korean people, they have met their just fate. I will simply tell Minister Lee that his brother is deployed too far away for a timely reconciliation and his girlfriend is away on an important assignment for the ministry. I will tell him I will send his family to Beijing to be with him when it is convenient to the revolution. If that is all, you may go, Miss Yong. General Rhee, please stay.”
In the privacy of General Fhang’s office, Fhang confronted his deputy about this unexpected and inconvenient development. “Should these facts become known to Minister Lee, General, he could become, shall we say, unreliable in such a delicate environment as these arms negotiations. This could work at cross purposes to my strategy of deceiving the Americans and the Japanese about our nuclear ambitions. Minister Lee is vital to our success at this time. We must be sure that he does not learn the fate of his family. In time, we can replace him, and he will then become expend
able.”
General Rhee was at once both in admiration of and repulsed by Fhang’s emotionally detached reaction to the dramatic news about Lee’s family. On the one hand he could not help but admire the General’s clinical decision-making, but his inhumane emotional detachment sent a shudder down his spine. For a moment he tried to put himself in the minister’s place. How could anyone carry on professional duties at the behest of a government that had ruthlessly taken the lives of one’s family based on a cynical pretext of feigned disloyalty? Given the lack of sophisticated communications infrastructure in the DPRK and the difficulty of ordinary citizens in getting access to even the most primitive electronic communications, it was all but impossible for anyone but those at the highest level of the army and the government to routinely communicate. Without routine communication, how could Lee have known the fate of his loved ones. The Brilliant New Light so far was anything but for the citizens of the DPRK.
Minister Lee and his portfolio would soon be on the way to Beijing, and he would find out about his family in the good time selected by General Fhang.
*
Seth Bainbridge sent the DPRK proposal in its entirety directly to the State Department via encrypted cable from the American Embassy in Beijing before having dinner and retiring after a tense day at the negotiating table.
At noon the following day, Secretary Randolph briefed Jonathan Braxton. “Mr. President, the previous back-channel hints from the North Koreans about shutting down some of their nuclear development initiatives are indeed what is contained in their formal proposal we received from the DPRK Foreign Minister yesterday. My State Department staff and Director Mitchell’s CIA analysts have gone over it word for word and it seems straightforward. There seems to be nothing fuzzy like we would have expected from the previous leadership. I think we may have something to work with here.”
*
The meeting that President Braxton had in Honolulu with Seth Bainbridge prior to him meeting with Rachel Hunter about the vacant Vice-Presidency, as well as follow-on cables that Bainbridge had sent to Secretary Alexander, gave President Braxton and his national security team a sliver of hope that the new regime in Pyongyang was interested in pursuing good faith negotiations. But hope is always fragile. When the North Korean negotiators hinted at mothballing their plutonium reactor and the known uranium enrichment site the U.N. IAEA inspectors had inspected on several occasions for unspecified concessions on the part of the United States, China, and Japan, the other parties to the talks knew that a decisive moment was at hand.