Baekgang
The Gulf War, which erupted in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait, was the first war in world history in which advanced military technology was deployed on a massive scale.
Armed with GPS, stealth fighters, and precision-guided weapons, the coalition forces brought the war to an end with a crushing victory in barely a year.
And the North Korean leadership, having seen the Gulf War, came to understand the importance of electronic warfare.
They sent a large number of students from Kim Jong Il Political and Military University—the key training ground for cyber warriors—to study abroad in China.
One of those exchange students, Baek Ha-ryong, fell for a Korean-Chinese woman named Rim Baek-hui, who lived in Harbin, and ended up fathering a child with her.
A boy was born to them.
Baek Ha-ryong named the child Baekgang.
But when the boy was three, Baek Ha-ryong had no choice but to return to North Korea.
Back in the North, he was assigned to Unit 121 under the Reconnaissance General Bureau’s Third Bureau, the technical intelligence bureau, alongside classmates who had also returned from their studies abroad, and went on to take part in the cyberattacks, terrorism, and financial thefts North Korea carried out around the world.
Then, twenty years later—
Baekgang, who had been attending Harbin Institute of Technology, finally met the father he had only ever greeted over the phone.
He bowed deeply to Baek Ha-ryong, who had come home after twenty years.
Receiving the bow, Baek Ha-ryong looked at his grown son with obvious satisfaction.
And Baekgang found that gaze strangely uncomfortable.
It wasn’t resentment.
Baek Ha-ryong had faithfully sent money to his mother every month.
And Baekgang, who knew what life was like in North Korea, understood just how dangerous and difficult that must have been.
An awkward silence settled between father and son.
To break it, Rim Baek-hui spoke first.
“He looks just like you.”
She wasn’t speaking only of his looks.
Baekgang was one of the top students in the software engineering department at Harbin Institute of Technology, and after graduation he was scheduled to join an IT company in Shenzhen, China.
“Gang, come do one job with your old man.”
“A job……?”
Baekgang found it strange that the first thing his father said after twenty years was a request to work together.
Rim Baek-hui felt the same way.
“What kind of job……?”
Baek Ha-ryong then explained what he wanted to do with his son.
It was to steal the cryptocurrency belonging to customers held at DZ Bank, one of Germany’s major banks.
“Then we can live together now.”
Baek Ha-ryong said that to the worried Rim Baek-hui and Baekgang.
“Is that really true……?!”
“The Party has already given its approval.”
Baekgang thought that after being separated for more than twenty years, living together now could hardly mean much of anything.
But when he saw his mother shedding tears of joy, he changed his mind.
In the end, Baekgang developed the program his father ordered.
The program he created was designed to trigger an error code before the hash value could be processed whenever a cryptocurrency transaction occurred.
Using that program, the hackers of Unit 121 under the Reconnaissance General Bureau’s Third Bureau succeeded in stealing roughly twelve million dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency.
But Rim Baek-hui’s wish never came true.
Baek Ha-ryong returned to North Korea, saying he would be back soon, but even after the promised date had passed, he never appeared.
Instead of Baek Ha-ryong, operatives from the Reconnaissance General Bureau’s Fifth Bureau, the foreign intelligence bureau, came to their home.
And as they shoved forward records of the money Baek Ha-ryong had been sending Rim Baek-hui all those years, they said, “Baek Ha-ryong, who embezzled the assets of our republic, will be executed.”
Rim Baek-hui clung to their trouser legs and begged them to spare him.
And, as the condition for sparing Baek Ha-ryong’s life, they gave Baekgang a new assignment.
He was to go to Hong Kong and develop a cryptocurrency under the name Magnolia.
In the end, Baekgang went to Hong Kong with them.
And there, together with the hackers from the Reconnaissance General Bureau’s Fifth Bureau who had been dispatched to Hong Kong, he created the cryptocurrency.
That was as far as Kim Hyun, head of the Overseas Crimes Team at the National Intelligence Service, let him get before cutting him off.
“I know. I also know that Bitcom listed, then delisted, the cryptocurrency North Korea is believed to have developed over the past five years.”
Kim Hyun was already familiar with that story.
“Then do you know why it was listed again?” Baekgang asked, looking at Kim Hyun.
“Isn’t that obvious? To launder cryptocurrency stolen through hacking, or to clean black money.”
“No.”
“No?”
“There are South Koreans who send money to North Korea.”
“What are you talking about……?”
“There are people in the South doing some kind of business with North Korea.”
“……!”
The act of a South Korean sending money to North Korea.
As far as Kim Hyun knew, there was only one such case.
Defectors sending money through brokers to family members still left behind in the North.
“What do you mean by some kind of business?”
“Exactly what I said. They send money and receive something in return.”
“Receive what from North Korea……? W-what’s the price?”
“I don’t know that much.”
Kim Hyun felt deflated.
But the next thing Baekgang said made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
“But I have records of the cryptocurrency purchases they made. And their wallets.”
“Where?”
“Stored in my personal cloud.”
“Then why are you telling me this only now?”
Kim Hyun was suspicious of how readily Baekgang was laying everything bare.
“They didn’t keep their promise.”
“They, meaning……?”
“North Korea.”
North Korea had promised to spare Baekgang’s father if he developed Magnolia.
But North Korea never kept that promise.
As soon as Baekgang learned that, he backed up every record to his own cloud and fled to Macau.
But after only a week, he was caught by operatives from the Reconnaissance General Bureau’s Fifth Bureau sent from Pyongyang, and loaded onto a cargo ship bound for North Korea.
As soon as the interrogation was over, Kim Hyun went to the First Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service and reported everything.
That information was immediately relayed to Director O Ji-hoon.
“So right now you’re investigating the transaction history for that cryptocurrency?”
“Yes. The Foreign Security Intelligence Department is tracing the cryptocurrency wallets of those who purchased Magnolia.”
O Ji-hoon fell silent for a moment, thinking.
If the ruling party or a corporation had become entangled with a cryptocurrency developed by North Korea, the matter could grow very serious indeed.
“You should probably report this upward first.”
The First Deputy Director spoke carefully.
“Right. Everyone, leave us.”
O Ji-hoon sent the people in his office away.
Once outside the director’s office, the NIS staff naturally assumed O Ji-hoon would report to Go Jeong-un, the National Security Office director.
As an agency directly under the president, the National Intelligence Service was guaranteed independence.
But the National Security Office was the department that oversaw national security and foreign policy, and in principle the NIS was supposed to report North Korea-related matters to it.
However, O Ji-hoon broke from that principle and called Yoo Jeong-hun, the President’s Chief of Staff, instead of Go Jeong-un.
The National Security Office at the presidential compound was busy preparing for the parliamentary audit scheduled for next month.
And Kang-hae, who had returned to work again only a few days earlier, passed the time with petty chores as soon as he arrived at the office.
There wasn’t much Kang-hae could do in the National Security Office when he still couldn’t even handle Excel properly.
Even helping Seong Ha-yeong draft documents was difficult for him.
Simply sitting at a desk was torture for Kang-hae, and Seong Ha-yeong knew it, so she assigned him miscellaneous tasks.
Mostly errands—carrying documents to other departments.
After making that trip between the many floors of the presidential compound several times, lunchtime finally arrived.
Kang-hae ate in the staff cafeteria with Seong Ha-yeong, and just as they were finishing up, his phone rang with an incoming international number.
It was the call he had been waiting for from Miki Ho.
Kang-hae answered at once.
“Miss Jane told me what happened. That your sister sent people after you. I’d like to apologize on her behalf.”
“It’s fine.”
“I spoke to my sister. She won’t be sending anyone after either of you from now on.”
“Thank you.”
It was welcome news.
But there was something else Kang-hae wanted to hear.
“By any chance, do you know what happened to the phone I entrusted you with last time?”
“Haha. You seem pretty eager. Fortunately, I’ve found a few things.”
“I’d be grateful if you’d tell me.”
“The man you handled was a private contractor. The request was exchanged by email or Telegram, so it took some time to trace.”
“So……?”
“We secured the IP addresses of the people who ordered the murder. Tracing the IPs for the people who placed requests over the last month gave us Germany, Vietnam, Japan, and Korea.”
That alone wasn’t enough.
But Miki Ho continued.
“However, they found a digital fingerprint in the image file sent by the person using the Korean IP.”
“Then……!”
“I’ll send you the address.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll be in Korea sometime soon anyway, so let’s talk then.”
“Yes. Then I’ll see you then.”
After ending the call, Kang-hae received a text message from Miki Ho with an address.
‘……!’
And Kang-hae knew the place.
It was the hardware store at Yeonan Pier in Incheon, the one he had visited with the twins a few days earlier.
The moment he confirmed the text, Kang-hae ran out of the National Security Office.
Seong Ha-yeong called after him, but it was useless.
Kang-hae took a taxi straight to Yeonan Pier.
Ping—
As Kang-hae stepped into the hardware store, the door’s little bell struck against the frame and rang out.
Before the man inside could even open the back room door, Kang-hae had already gone in.
“Ah, you’re the man who came by a few days ago.”
The man seated at the desk recognized him.
Kang-hae went straight to him, grabbed a fistful of his hair, and slammed his face down onto the desk.
Thunk—
With a sickening sound, the man screamed.
“Agh!”
His nose broke, and bright red blood poured down the bridge.
Kang-hae kept his head pinned down.
“W-why are you doing this! I said the sister got there safely!”
The man shouted in desperation.
“I didn’t know you were running a murder brokerage too.”
“……!”
Kang-hae pulled a knife from his pocket.
And drove it into the man’s hand.
“Aaaagh!”
The man’s scream was even louder than before.
“I-I only brokered the job.”
The man’s voice shook as he spoke.
“What’s the difference? The bastard who kills, the bastard who orders it, and a bastard like you who brokers it—they’re all the same.”
“…….”
Kang-hae yanked the knife back out of the hand it had pinned to the desk.
“I’m only asking once. If you don’t answer properly, I’ll stick it through your throat next.”
For more than twenty years, the man had made money doing every kind of illegal work.
The reason he had managed to stay alive and keep working for so long was that he possessed an unusually sharp survival instinct.
And he knew, with chilling certainty, that Kang-hae meant every word he had just said.
“Who was it that put out the contract to have me killed in Macau?”
“……!”
At that moment, the man understood what had been nagging at him for days.
So that’s what I missed……
The man squeezed his eyes shut.
And decided it was time to retire.
When Kang-hae had come by a few days earlier, something about him had seemed familiar.
But he had never imagined Kang-hae was the actual target of the contract.
There was also the fact that Kang-hae in the flesh looked different from the photo.
And once he sent the file to a killer, his habit of deleting everything after that had done the rest.
To preserve his own life, the man decided he would tell everything.
“The NIS…… It was the National Intelligence Service that tried to have you killed.”