Hunting Down the Power Brokers, Part 2
“The security’s heavy.”
“Well, there was that little incident recently...”
Jonathan Reed, the American ambassador to Korea, sat in the back of the embassy’s official car as it rolled into Gyeongbokgung.
The view outside the window was grim in the extreme.
Armored vehicles stationed at intervals. Armed soldiers on guard duty, their eyes sharp with suspicion.
This is a scene I wouldn’t have believed possible just a few days ago.
Until now, the men stationed at the main gate had mostly been a ceremonial detachment from the Guard Brigade, but the Marines on duty here made no effort at all to hide their hostility.
Then again, they had good reason.
Ambassador Reed sorted through the string of events in Korea over the past few days once more in his mind.
The wedding terrorist attack, the coup, the deaths of key figures, the crackdown, the new emperor’s accession.
It had all begun with the horrific bombing at Deoksugung. The imperial line had been wiped out in its entirety—an unprecedented act of terror that killed the Emperor, the Crown Prince, and every direct member of the royal family.
At the time, the ambassador to Korea had been caught in the blast as well, and no one knew whether he was dead or alive. Back in Washington, the government had gone into a frenzy, while Reed himself had had no choice but to spend the night with his eyes open, watching the coup unfold.
With the whole world watching, the one man who had overturned that despairing situation was someone practically no one had heard of.
Who is Lee Jin?
The embassy had identified most of the Korean imperial family’s prominent figures, but this man wasn’t in any of their records.
Yet with the capital effectively under control, he had marched into the broadcasting station with troops in tow, persuaded both the military and the public, and in the end defeated the powerful insurgents to sit upon the throne himself.
Even the White House and the State Department, watching the situation with mounting anxiety, had let out a breath of shock and relief at Lee Jin’s swift, decisive seizure of control.
But that hadn’t been the end of it.
Jonathan Reed, suddenly elevated to chargé d’affaires, had had to run himself ragged gathering information for Washington.
“Find out everything you can about the new emperor! Anything, no matter how small! His relationship with the former royal family, his blood type, his social circle—dig up whatever you can dig up!”
After only a short while of being prodded like that, he had finally begun receiving rough reports.
Now at least I can start to get a handle on who this man is.
And yet even the information they’d managed to collect on Lee Jin was, in Reed’s eyes, enough to make him click his tongue.
Ordinary. Too ordinary.
When Reed first received Lee Jin’s profile, he had wondered if he was seeing things. He was only a distant relative of the Korean imperial family, and before all this, hadn’t he merely been living like a farmer?
No, not merely like a farmer. Judging by his record up to now, he had just been...
A farmer, period.
Of course, that was the embassy’s assessment. The CIA’s Korea office took a different view.
- The subject, Lee Jin, had resided on Ganghwado, an island near the capital and a traditional refuge of the Korean imperial family.
- Considering that Korean royals had been concentrated in the capital, the fact that he lived on Ganghwado itself was highly unusual. It should be strongly considered that the subject may have been educated there as a hidden successor to the imperial family.
Jonathan Reed had barely managed to swallow the words, So you’re saying this because you saw the Emperor tending a field and then got caught by the old lady next door, aren’t you?
The CIA was the sort of outfit that would believe enemy conspiracies even if it simply tripped over a curb, so it wasn’t entirely strange that they’d fallen into this kind of fantasy.
But Jonathan Reed was a rational man.
As Sherlock Holmes once said, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains—however unlikely—must be the truth.
So what, I’m supposed to accept that some ordinary young man who’d been farming suddenly led troops into the capital after the imperial family and the government were wiped out?
That was the conclusion Reed had to settle on, and after gritting his teeth through the whole thing, he sent every scrap of information he could gather about Lee Jin to Washington.
Only after several days had passed did Washington, having collated information from a variety of channels, finally send the embassy its guidelines.
- Korea’s new emperor is a distant relative of the former emperor, and little is known about his background or temperament.
- However, given the charisma and decisiveness he showed in defeating Marshal Song and seizing the throne, and considering Korea’s system, which is close to an absolute monarchy, he is likely to become actively involved in politics going forward.
- Korea is a pro-American monarchy like Saudi Arabia or the UAE, and the emperor should be encouraged to continue the existing diplomatic line.
The most important part:
- Therefore, the embassy will prioritize establishing a friendly relationship with the new emperor and his government.
To that end, Jonathan Reed—“the man who knew the most about Lee Jin”—had been formally appointed ambassador.
＊ ＊ ＊
The first meeting with the ambassador after he entered Gyeongbokgung began with a brief memorial for the tragedy.
“I’m Jonathan Reed, the United States ambassador to Korea, Your Majesty.”
“Welcome. I am Lee Jin, Emperor of the Republic of Korea.”
“First, on behalf of the strong friendship between our two nations, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations on Your Majesty’s accession. And... I also wish to express my deepest condolences for the tragedy suffered by the former Emperor, His Highness the Crown Prince, and the rest of the imperial family in the Deoksugung terror attack.”
“I, too, mourn the sacrifice of the former ambassador and the many honored guests who were caught in that disaster, and I offer my condolences.”
The Emperor’s measured words of sympathy and apology.
There had been foreign dignitaries present at the state wedding, but the matter had not escalated into a diplomatic crisis.
Why? Because this side had had its Emperor, imperial family, and government officials wiped out wholesale.
It wasn’t as if Song Hak-su and his people were still clinging to power, either. With everyone else waiting for a death sentence, it was hardly the time for either side to start pointing fingers and shouting, It was all your country’s fault.
So the whole situation was moving toward a smooth settlement through apology and compensation, and Ambassador Reed quickly got down to business.
The conversation, in broad strokes, went something like this.
“My government strongly supports Your Majesty’s new leadership, and we plan to pursue an official summit between our two countries in the near future.”
We’ve decided to recognize your accession. Happy now?
“That is excellent news. Please convey my gratitude to your President as well.”
And if you didn’t recognize me, then what? As if you had any real choice.
If you really want to help me, bring me something tangible.
“The American government appreciates your goodwill, but if you truly seek stability in Korea’s situation, there is a matter we should address first.”
“You mean the recent economic instability?”
“Exactly. I trust the ambassador is aware of the cause.”
I hadn’t said it outright, but I had given him more than enough of a hint.
Reed understood perfectly.
He smiled faintly and said, “Your Majesty, my government is very positive about helping stabilize the Korean economy in step with Your Majesty’s accession. A currency swap is also under active consideration as a strong option.”
“Splendid.”
The market moves on psychology.
The moment an agreement with the United States was announced, the Gyeonghwa noble families’ little games would have to stop right there.
But Reed wasn’t finished.
“However...”
“There are conditions, I take it.”
At my blunt reply, Reed lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
“I won’t hide it. My government feels that, given Korea’s wealth and economic scale, its financial market is still far too backward.”
“Backward, you say.”
“In particular, the opaque flow of money controlled by certain families poses a major risk to foreign investors. Washington believes substantial measures are needed to improve transparency.”
America’s intentions were obvious.
In exchange for helping me, they wanted me to strip away the murky layers of Korea’s financial market and clear a path for American capital to come in more easily.
On the surface, it sounded like the kind of line you’d use to stop a ruthless foreign capital invasion—but the Gyeonghwa noble families had probably worn that script out until it was threadbare already.
From my point of view... it was exactly what I’d been waiting for.
“If what America wants is transparency, then you’ve arrived at the perfect time.”
“Oh?”
“I was planning to sweep this country’s financial market clean myself.”
I took out a thin folder sent up by the TF team and slid it over to Reed.
As he flipped through the pages, Reed’s eyes gradually widened.
“Th-this is...”
“The borrowed-name capital of the noble families attacking the exchange rate. A method to cut its windpipe in one stroke. What do you think, Ambassador?”
Reed swallowed hard.
A single line of imperial decree written on the page.
If this were carried out, the shape of Korea’s economy...
No, the balance of power beyond it would be turned upside down completely.
Reed looked at me and asked, “Are you serious? There’ll be considerable resistance.”
“As you know, the so-called noble families and I crossed a river we can’t go back across.”
“...That’s an extraordinary decision. Washington would welcome reform on this scale with open arms. If it comes to fruition, that is.”
At Reed’s words, I leaned back and answered quietly, “Of course. I’m certain of it.”
＊ ＊ ＊
Lee Jin got what he needed. Reed got what he needed.
While Reed coordinated the terms with Washington, Lee Jin’s preparations were also nearing their end.
By then, the Gyeonghwa noble families’ attacks had reached something close to their peak.
Friday, 4:30 p.m.
Right after all the banks had pulled down their shutters.
“Your Majesty, we’re ready.”
In the briefing room built in one corner of Gyeongbokgung, beneath the backdrop emblazoned with the imperial phoenix gate crest, Lee Jin took the microphone.
“Citizens, this is Lee Jin, Emperor of the Republic of Korea.”
By now, even the people of Korea were familiar with that voice.
＊ ＊ ＊
[Citizens, this is Lee Jin, Emperor of the Republic of Korea.]
The Emperor’s first nationwide address since the economic crisis had been stoked.
In Jangdong, speculation about its contents had already been flying before it even began.
“He’s surely about to announce that he’ll release the imperial reserve funds.”
“Exactly. The imperial treasury and private assets aren’t small either. He’ll dump them into the market and try to defend the exchange rate with a cheap stunt.”
“But isn’t that just pouring water into a broken jar? A few coins from the reserve won’t calm this panic.”
If the Emperor were to donate his reserve funds in order to overcome the crisis, it would look like a noble sacrifice on the surface.
Given that Lee Jin had already made the dramatic decision to throw the former royal family’s scandals to the wolves, it was a fairly plausible assumption.
[Our economy has recently faced a serious threat in the form of an abnormal surge in the exchange rate and a collapse in the stock market.]
[But citizens, let me make this clear. This chaos was not caused because our national economy lacks basic strength.]
Lee Jin in the television screen stared straight ahead as he spoke.
[A small number of corrupt vested interests and noble families have been deliberately disrupting the market in order to protect their own wealth and seize even greater power.]
“Good grief... look at him...”
“Is he trying to get through the crisis by blaming our aristocratic families again?”
“That trick won’t work twice, you know.”
But Kim Yang-han said nothing.
From the time he had crushed Song Hak-su’s rebellion until now, every word Lee Jin spoke, every address he gave, had sent storms across this country.
He was not the kind of man who would cheapen his own words with some meaningless attack speech.
As an unfathomable unease began crawling up Kim Yang-han’s spine—
[The government will never bow to the violence and greed of such filthy capital. Just moments ago, I held a closed-door meeting with the United States ambassador to Korea.]
America...?
Tension tightened like a wire through Jangdong.
[And I now declare clearly from this podium that an agreement with the United States has been reached to secure the transparency and stability of our financial market. Our ally likewise places firm trust in the fundamentals of our economy, so you need not worry about capital flight.]
[The Republic of Korea and the United States will begin an unprecedented level of cooperation to cut off the flow of clandestine black capital and establish a transparent, fair market economy.]
“The American ambassador? Why on earth would he...”
“We weren’t given a single word of warning about this, were we?”
[In accordance with that agreement, I now invoke an Emergency Fiscal and Economic Order under the constitutional authority granted to the Emperor, in order to fully excise the abscess that has stained our national economy and restore social justice.]
[Dear citizens,]
Lee Jin’s voice dropped, heavy as iron.
[From this moment on, all financial transactions will be conducted under real names only.]
Kim Yang-han bit down hard on his lip.