The Devil's Playground

by Michael Reagan

from the former North, our intelligence reports that Vice President O Su Won would be very much against this as he would not want to be seen as using the former North Korean forces in an attack on the Japan," the Foreign Secretary had said, interrupting the briefing.

  "Why?" the Prime Minister had questioned.

  "So as not to give capital to the inevitable American accusations that they have been abusing their position in the supply of gas to Japan and not allow Nippon to claim it was under attack from Korea. The use of a military blockade would enable O Su Won to keep in check his countrymen, who no doubt still hate us, would demand," the man in his sixties had explained.

  The Prime Minister again had nodded.

  "So by not attacking Korea physically, this splits the President and the Vice President," he had said to show the room he understood why they were recommending such a plan.

  The grim nod of the Foreign Minister showed everybody present he had agreed with the Prime Minister's assessment of the situation.

  "The Americans?" the Prime Minister this time had queried.

  "The Parker Administration is keen to avoid any military conflict at all costs but understands our point of view," the Foreign Secretary had continued, surprising the Colonel who had hoped that somebody in America would put a stop to this nonsense.

  The Foreign Secretary then had finished his statement with a desperate look on his face.

  "The State Department has indicated that they would support our claim in the International Court if we finally took it to court."

  "A sensible answer," Takashi had thought, not understanding the political game that was going on above his pay grade. "This allows the Prime Minister to save to face and that should be enough to convince the Prime Minister not to move ahead," he had concluded as he had stood waiting for his orders, only to have his worst fears realized by the next words that came out of the Prime Minister's mouth.

  "I have it on good authority, Yuto-San, that if Japan orders military action then although unhappy they would not order us to withdraw or seek penalties," the Prime Minister had stated without saying how he knew.

  "But!" the Foreign Secretary had started before had been silenced by a hand movement from the Prime Minister.

  "This plan is approved! Tenno Heika Banzai!" he had said to a shocked room, a phrase meaning 'Long Live the Emperor,' which had not been used since the days of the Second World War. No one had been more shocked than the Colonel.

  The Colonel returned to the moment.

  Despite having allowed three hours after landing on the islands, the young Captain leading the assault confirmed over the radio that the lighthouse and the barracks had been taken five minutes later.

  "Casualties?" asked the relieved Colonel.

  "Five Policemen," replied the Captain without emotion.

  Takashi sighed. The fire had been well and truly lit in Asia.

  The news that the Dokdo Islands (the Korean name for the Liancourt Rocks) had fallen was delivered to the shocked Hong Tae-Young, the President of the United Republics of Korea, while he was attending a state dinner in London.

  Forty-five minutes later without even having time to change out of the black tie attire he had been wearing, he immediately boarded the Presidential Boeing 747-400 for the flight back to Seoul. During the time it had taken to leave the State Dinner at Mansion House and reach Heathrow Airport the secure Codex phone had not left his ear once because he was speaking to the Defense cabinet, led in his absence by the Minister of Defense in a bunker ten floors below the capital under the Yeouido Park Centre's Marriott Executive Apartments.

  "What are our response options?" he questioned the Minister.

  "At the moment the Japanese Ambassador in Seoul has informed us that an exclusion zone has been placed around the islands and Ulleungdo!" the Korean said with emotion and anger in his voice. "If we attempt to approach the islands then Japanese Armed Forces are authorized to use armed force to protect Japanese personnel."

  "What!" the President exclaimed into the phone, not quite believing the audacity of the Japanese.

  "That's not all, Sir," injected the Foreign Minister over the voice of the Defense Minister. "The U.S. Secretary of State is insisting that we remain calm and do not to respond with any force!" he said with disgust.

  The President only just managed to keep his rage in check. Politically if he did nothing then his short tenure in office would be over. He needed to appear decisive and in control for his people. He took a deep breath then started.

  "Immediately recall our Ambassador to Japan and expel theirs." A necessary gesture to show force but pointless in the scheme of things. "And make arrangements for me to call President Parker."

  "Yes Sir," replied the Foreign Minister.

  "In the meantime cancel all leave and place all military personnel on war footing," he ordered.

  "Yes Sir," the Defense Minister replied.

  "I want a full outline of all our military options by the time I land!"

  "Yes Sir," came the voices of all the cabinet, as Hong then called his deputy O Su Won in Pyongyang to ask him to go on television to calm the nation.

  32

  Pyongyang

  Surrounded by members of the original Humble Servant team, Vice President O Su Won listened to the stressed voice without emotion. He had been on the call for thirty minutes with Hong Tae-Young and during that time he promised that he would go on television to calm the nerves of the Koreans and rebuke the Japanese aggression. He agreed with the decision to place all Korean armed forces on war footing but counseled against moving the troops to the South so not to give Japan the excuse that this was in breach of Geneva reunification accord, arguing that it would legally give Japan the right to proactively attack the mainland, advice an emotional Hong despite his objections agreed to.

  With the call now at its natural end, O ended it with a short grunt.

  "By your command Sir," he said before calmly putting the telephone down.

  He looked at his men, smiled, and rose from behind the desk. He walked around it until he was standing in front of them. He stood to attention and saluted them.

  "Glory to the heroic soldiers of the Korean People's Army!" he said passionately.

  Immediately the men stood together. They saluted him back and broke into the traditional marching song of North Korea that they all used to sing as young men to praise the former leader as part of the despot's aura of superiority, known as the Song for Kim Song II. Emotions ran high. Tears streamed down their respective faces. The plan they had all been waiting for their entire lives were about to begin.

  33

  Beijing / Washington D.C. / Moscow

  The Minister of Defense and State Councilor of the People's Republic of China is always a General in the People's Liberation Army. Wang Jing, the current incumbent who had only been in the position for less than three months, was chairing the Central Committee meeting when the report of Japan's annexation the Liancourt Rocks came through.

  The tensions in the room were already running highas the escalation of the rhetoric between Americans, Chinese, and the Russians over the China's destruction of Saman Depe and Russia's deployment of thirty-thousand of their Spentsaz Special Forces into Derbant, Dagestan, one of the oldest cities in the world with its structures dating back five thousand years, a decision that China along with the United States was viewing as a precursor to an invasion of Turkmenistan by Russia had accelerated.

  The collective look of shock on the faces of the members of Central Committee led by the Premier Sun Dabao on hearing thelatest news had only reinforced it.

  "How is it that the MPS were unaware of this plan?" demanded the Premier of Jiang; not believing for one second that with the SIGINT resources of China that nation spent twenty-billion dollars a year on, Wang Jing's organization could not have been aware of what was being planned by Japan.

  "The Japanese used the cover of their annual military exercises with the United States," the Head of t
he MPS coolly responded, outlining as to why to his colleagues in the room. It was an explanation that firmly implied that the Americans were complicit, despite, courtesy of media briefings from the State Department, denying otherwise.

  The Premier, parking his thoughts over what he believed was an avoidance of responsibility by his colleague for his ministry's intelligence failure, asked the Foreign Minister for his update.

  "What are the Americans officially saying?"

  "They are extremely upset but have stopped short of demanding that the Japanese withdraw publically, much to the Koreans disgust! Instead the Americans are making all necessary efforts to push for the international court's solution."

  "So they are not trying to convince them to withdraw?" the Premier queried, earning a further ten-minute overview from the Foreign Minister as to why. Not that he needed any further explanation, as he already knew the legal reasons as to why this position was being taken by the United States, but in a country dominated by political grandstanding it was a necessary evil so further generations could review their decisions and actions. A legacy of Mao's Red Book that always demanded that all party officials show their loyalty to China and contempt of the United States.

  "And the Russians?" asked the Premier, without pausing for thought the second the tirade finished, as he digested the update of the American position.

  "They are supporting the position of the Koreans diplomatically, but have stopped short, for the moment unsurprisingly, of