Brilliant New Light (Chance Lyon military adventure series Book 3)
Page 59
As they had planned for this meeting, both President Hunter and Marilyn Mitchell knew they were rolling the dice on such a request, but it was meant to show the Foreign Minister how strongly the Americans felt about containment of any information about Gamma, especially considering what the proposed long-term plan was for his future. Getting Yang’s agreement would signal how much the PRC hierarchy was buying into the importance of getting to a mutually agreeable solution to the overriding issue of the problematic regime of the DPRK.
Minister Yang and his interpreter exchanged inaudible comments and Yang nodded affirmatively in Mitchell’s direction. With that, led by Secretary Randolph, everyone except for the select three left the room. Then Marilyn Mitchell spoke, followed by Bledsoe’s interpretation to Minister Yang. “Mr. Foreign Minister, the man speaking on the video is General Kim Dong-sun, a man you know as General Fhang’s Chief of Staff. Before being elevated to that position shortly after General Fhang assumed power in the DPRK, he was a Colonel in the People’s Army of North Korea, posted to Pakistan as the leader of the North Korean contingent of the Joint Pakistani-DPRK Nuclear Development Group. In that position he was privy to all of Pakistan’s nuclear secrets and had an active role in servicing the nuclear warheads Pakistan has stored in various areas throughout Pakistan. He is an expert on the design and construction of these weapons as his men regularly service them for the Pakistanis. This joint development group has provided the engineering for the accelerated development of the DPRK nuclear program, which as you can see, is far ahead of what many intelligence analysts thought.”
“And what is it that Pakistan has received in return?” asked Yang, through Bledsoe.
“A supply of cheap and plentiful uranium ore, sir,” answered Marilyn Mitchell.
Minister Yang merely nodded as if he understood the quid-pro-quo of the arrangement, then continued, “And how is it that this General Kim is now narrating a video describing the nuclear device that American intelligence intercepted on its way into the United States?”
Every risky and strategic situation contains a moment of truth in the form of a revelation that is shockingly informative, leading up to what the prosecutor hopes is a moment of clarity for the listener. Such a moment demands the listener make a choice as to the validity of the content being presented, and of its importance. Such a moment was now for Marilyn Mitchell. “Minister Yang, General Kim, the narrator in this video, was accompanying the Korean nuclear terrorist team on their journey to infiltrate the warhead into the United States.”
After a moment of silence, Yang asked, “And why is he being so cooperative to you by making this video.”
“Because he is...and has been...working for the United States since he was in Pakistan. He is an agent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency,” was Director Mitchell’s answer, delivered through Jeremiah Bledsoe.
Even the legendary inscrutability of the Chinese countenance was tested when Minister Yang heard this revelation from Jeremiah Bledsoe. Mitchell and Bledsoe both thought they detected Yang’s facial expression blanch slightly in surprise as they waited for an audible response.
Minister Yang was an experienced diplomat, and rather than express any reaction, he merely asked a direct question. “Would it be out of place for me to ask to speak with this man directly, Director? I am most interested in meeting him myself.”
Marilyn Mitchell allowed herself a silent sigh of relief and answered evenly, “Of course, Minister. In anticipation of your request, General Kim is available to meet with you and show you the nuclear warhead at the same time...a sort of personal guided tour, if you will.”
“Under the same guidelines as this disclosure?” asked Yang.
“Minister, the only reason I asked the others to not be in the room was the contingency that you would have a negative reaction to the revelation I just made. If there was such, I wanted to allow you the courtesy of expressing this privately just to us. The only person here who does not know about our relationship with General Kim is your interpreter. In the case of Mr. Bledsoe, he has only known as of today. Now that you know everything, I will let you make the call on including your interpreter.”
“Given the great sensitivity of this subject, I would prefer to exclude my interpreter. I have great trust in Mr. Bledsoe,” Yang said, nodding in the direction of the American Ambassador with a slight smile.
“Just so,” replied Marilyn Mitchell. “Shall we adjourn to view the physical evidence?”
*
Park Man-soo was exhausted, but in a positive way. When he first arrived at the secret site in El Salvador where he was being questioned by the CIA interrogators he feared for the worst, as he had been conditioned culturally. In North Korea, those who were arrested and brought to the infamous prisons in and around Pyongyang were at the mercy of the Ministry of State Security. To many, arrest was tantamount to conviction, and even if a suspect told the truth exonerating him or her from the most minor of offense, torture and sentencing to one of the notorious labor camps was often the sentence. Park was sure it would be this way for him, considering the magnitude of his offences.
To be sure, the conditions were less than ideal. He was alone and the conditions at the interrogation site were austere. But he heard no cries of pain or suffering from other prisoners and at least the temperature in the building was warm, if too humid. He was given water and two passably decent meals every day. At night he slept in a real bed that was marginally better than what he and his men had in Vancouver. Every day he was allowed to shower for a few minutes with warm water and soap. He was even allowed some whisky at the end of the day. In spite of these relative comforts, Park remained under considerable stress under the assumption the axe was about to fall, and he would sink into the abyss of a North-Korean-style gulag existence.
His interrogator, Matt Bogen, was a no-nonsense questioner with a prepared list of questions he started with every day after rising. Unlike many amateur interrogators whose main effort was to inflict pain and suffering as a means for extracting truth, Bogen was business-like and conversational as he probed for answers. After two days he began to ask the same questions in different ways, which confused Park as he made clumsy attempts to evade the answers. Soon his answers became inconsistent and when confronted with that, the psychological stress of knowing that his evasiveness was being shown as outright lies, made him lose confidence. Bogen never lost his temper and continued to pepper him with questions throughout the day that eventually led to Park contradicting himself in a laughable manner. Park soon began to realize he was no match for a seasoned professional like Bogen, and he grew physically and mentally weary of the non-stop questioning. He was exhausted and yearned for release from this psychological prison.
On the fourth morning, Bogan told Park it would be his last day at this site. “We are moving you, Mr. Park,” Bogen said flatly. “You now have two choices of where to go. One, we will send you back to North Korea, where you will either be tortured and killed, or you may get off easy and be sent to a labor camp, along with any living members of your family, of course. The alternative will be to be sent to a prison in the United States that houses political detainees as you. You will be treated humanely there, but the conditions are austere and you will not have contact with other prisoners. Candidly, these choices will both probably have the same unpleasant result for you, but the second one will at least give you a chance for humane survival and your family may be spared. Take your choice.”
“Obviously I will prefer the second choice, Mr. Bogen.”
“Fine, then we will proceed. But first, there is one requirement. You must narrate a complete confession, in your own words, telling us about the mission to infiltrate the warhead from start to finish, including details about your companions, your contacts in Vancouver, meeting Mr. Kim, and your journey from Vancouver in the attempt to smuggle the weapon into the United States. You must not leave anything out, including the murders of your Korean colleagues. Are you prepared to do that?�
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After nearly a minute of thought, Park Man-soo replied, “Yes, I will begin when you are ready.”
As if on cue, the other CIA operators brought in a video camera and for nearly one hour, Park spilled his guts for posterity – while sealing his fate for likely the rest of his life in Supermax, where he would keep his life but slowly lose his mind in solitary confinement.
By early in the afternoon Bogen was on his way to Houston on a commercial flight out of San Salvador, while Park and the other two CIA operatives had left the Annex via a U.S. Navy Black Hawk helicopter to a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier operating two-hundred miles off the west coast of El Salvador. The next day the video of Park’s narrative of the compromised terrorist mission had arrived via FedEx at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
*
Marilyn Mitchell, Ambassador Bledsoe, and Foreign Minister Yang entered the underground building on the Bangor Trident Base where the warhead was stored and walked into a secured area where it could be viewed. Compared to the sterility of the room itself the warhead looked crude and out of place. It was laid out on a long, stainless steel industrial table and had been covered by a dark green cloth set aside by the only other human occupant of the room who stood a few feet away from the table. As the party approached the table they all looked at it with a certain degree of respect. The silence of the room was broken by Marilyn Mitchell who said, “Minister Yang, may I present General Kim Dong-sun, of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea? General, I believe you know Foreign Minister Yang Yu Tho of the People’s Republic of China.”
Both men stepped forward and greeted each other with a brief bow and a handshake. Gamma spoke in English, interpreted by Jeremiah Bledsoe. “Greetings, Minister, I recognize you from a meeting we both attended in Pyongyang some time ago. I must admit I am somewhat surprised to see you here,” he said with little emotion.
“Yes, General, this is a surprising turn of events for me as well,” Yang responded in his usual diplomatic way of not showing his hand.
“Perhaps you will show the Minister the workings of the warhead and explain to him why the warhead was most assuredly manufactured in North Korea. He has seen the video so you may gloss over some of the smaller details and get to the main points of your conclusion and answer any of his questions,” suggested Mitchell.
After a few moments Minister Yang gently interrupted Gamma and with a wave of his hand over the exterior of the warhead, said, “I am satisfied this warhead is as you say it is, I am more interested in discussing the circumstances of you being here and what the implications of that are.”
Once again, Marilyn Mitchell was ready for this and suggested they all retire to an adjacent conference room for these discussions.
Alexander Randolph had graciously allowed Marilyn Mitchell to take the lead in showing hospitality to Foreign Minister Yang, but now the meeting was getting into the diplomatic phase. Once they were all seated in the conference room, it was time for the Americans, along with General Kim, to make Yang aware of Kim’s history of becoming allied with the American CIA. At the suggestion of Secretary Randolph, over the next thirty minutes Minister Yang, through Ambassador Bledsoe, questioned General Kim about him becoming an agent for the American CIA and being dispatched on the terrorist mission by General Fhang. Kim responded truthfully, although he did leave out the basis of the connection - the Iranian nuclear affair - as this was an event only a select few in the American political and intelligence establishment had any knowledge of. Yang’s questioning was focused and he never wavered from being non-judgmentally curious about the process, Kim’s motives, and what type information he had been able to provide the Americans. After arriving at the point where the nuclear infiltration had been thwarted, it became evident Yang was satisfied and had no additional questions. With the questioning of General Kim complete, Secretary Randolph, in a pre-planned move, suggested he and General Kim be excused so that Marilyn Mitchell could speak privately with Minister Yang, with Ambassador Bledsoe acting as the interpreter.
“Minister Yang, now that you have seen the warhead for yourself and had the opportunity to speak with General Kim, do you have any questions for us that would help clarify this whole situation? We want to make our intelligence and our position regarding the enmity between our country and the DPRK completely clear to you.”
“I am sufficiently clear on the facts surrounding this entire matter and my country appreciates your efforts and candor in sharing this information with us. It is very helpful to our relationship,” Yang replied. “However, I feel there is more to this meeting than has been displayed so far, or am I just overly suspicious after all these cloak and dagger revelations?”
“You are quite correct, sir,” Director Mitchell admitted with a wry smile. “I would like you to meet another person in a leadership role in our government who has something more than a passing interest in this matter.” With that the CIA Director arose and went to the other door in the conference room and knocked on it first before opening it. In a fateful moment, Rachel Hunter, the President of the United States, entered the room and strode confidently toward a visibly startled Foreign Minister Yang and extended her hand in greeting. “Minister Yang, I presume. I am very pleased to meet you.”
Yang immediately rose to his feet, probably as much out of surprise as respect for another Head of State, and shook Rachel Hunter’s hand warmly. “This journey is certainly full of surprises for me, Madam President. It is indeed a great pleasure to meet you as well.”
After some perfunctory diplomatic small talk President Hunter came directly to the point with Minister Yang. “Minister, our two countries have common goals that seem to be impeded by a common problem. We both are seeking to live in peaceful harmony with each other and our neighbors, while promoting mutual understanding and prosperity for our people. For many years the leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has tried to undermine these goals by behaving as a rogue state and provoking discord with anyone who is not ideologically aligned with them. Since your country is the one with the common border with the DPRK, the People’s Republic of China has a great deal to lose should serious trouble take place on the Korean peninsula. It should be clear to you, as it recently was to us, that their nuclear capability is significantly farther advanced that we had previously thought. This fact, combined with the DPRK’s continued belligerency toward their neighbors to the south, Japan, and the United States, presents a clear and present danger to all of us, including the People’s Republic of China.”
Minister Yang’s mind was racing with the idea that President Hunter had come to this venue to meet with him in person. It was rare for a Head of State to seek out and speak directly to another country’s primary diplomat without first preparing the conversation with his counterpart, in this case Alexander Randolph. Yang was beginning to smell a sales job of the first magnitude from the American President.
“I speak for the Premier on this matter, Madam President, when I say that General Fhang’s regime has indeed been troublesome for the People’s Republic of China, and we are most wary of his reckless behavior.”
Rachel Hunter continued, “Minister Yang, we have been informed by Secretary Randolph that he had a brief conversation with you recently about the fact General Fhang is a patient in one of your Beijing hospitals. There is no word out of North Korea about this, so I was wondering if you are aware of his current condition.”
“That is correct, Madam President,” answered Yang. “When I left, his condition was regarded as serious but stable, according to the Chinese neurologist who is treating him.”
“Minister Yang, it seems to me that we have a unique opportunity here. I am going to make a radical proposal to you that I have not even shared with Secretary Randolph. I realize you may feel that you have to discuss this with the Premier before you show any reaction, but I must begin this with you.”
Minister Yang simply nodded in acquiescence, encouraging the President to continue.
“It is,” answered Yang, succinctly.
“As you know General Kim has been an intelligence asset for us while essentially serving as General Fhang’s second in command in Pyongyang. He is a known quantity with the Generals and senior bureaucrats in that regime, and I am guessing that most of them accept and respect, if not fear, him. The wild card here is Fhang’s companion, who is also General Kim’s sister. General Kim tells us few people except servants even know her. Perhaps she can be useful to us in the future.”
“Yes, please continue, Madam President.”
“Minister Yang, what I am suggesting is, with the assistance of your government, we replace General Fhang as the strongman in North Korea with General Kim.”
As the veteran diplomat Minister Yang was, a Chinese man who came from an educated and traditional family, steeped in the culture of China going back many generations, Yang Lu Tho showed no visible emotion at this shockingly bold proposal by the American President. Instead he simply looked directly at Rachel Hunter for nearly a full minute before answering. “Madam President, what you are proposing is a most audacious plan...one that is essentially a coup d’état orchestrated from outside North Korea. Many would see it as an act of war. This is very serious indeed,” he exclaimed softly. “I could ask if you are completely serious, but that would be an insult since you have traveled especially to discuss this with me under this much security. I am sure you are very serious indeed.”
“Minister, you are the one person who has the ear of your Premier and knows his mind on many things. If, after hearing the outline of my proposal, you think that this is absolutely out of the question for your leadership to even consider such a plan for a moment, I shall say no more, and I will forget this meeting even took place. For this to work, your political leadership would have to agree with the ultimate goal of this plan and give us your active assistance,” Rachel Hunter said, as she paused for effect.