Chapter 137
Chapter 137
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: NBC (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Just as I was wrapping up the headache-inducing arms reduction issue to some degree and turning my attention abroad, David Ben-Gurion—who had reached out through the Rothschilds—arrived in Pyongyang.
Ben-Gurion was a man with an eight-lane highway carved right down the middle of his head, giving anyone who saw him a refreshingly clear impression.
“An honor to meet you, Prime Minister.”
“No need for that. Meeting Your Excellency Ben-Gurion brings me the greater joy.”
Strictly speaking, Ben-Gurion wasn’t the head of a nation, so calling him “Your Excellency” was a bit of a stretch.
But considering he was the de facto leader of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), treating him with the stature of a head of state wasn’t really an issue.
I took Ben-Gurion on a tour of the Energy Research Institute for Human Peace.
“This is the director, Dr. Heisenberg.”
“Heisenberg, huh.”
Perhaps because he’d been kidnapped into the job, Heisenberg always had a sour attitude.
Still, with his family brought over and treated to the best accommodations, he grumbled but cooperated with the research.
We exchanged greetings with the institute staff—half of whom were German scientists—as we inspected the nuclear development preparations.
Ben-Gurion paled at the theoretical destructive power of the bomb.
“150kt?”
It was bound to be shocking.
That was the equivalent of 150,000 tons of TNT explosives.
“In practice, it’ll be much lower than that. There’s significant energy loss in real-world use.”
Considering Little Boy had yielded only 15kt, our bomb would probably clock in around there too.
Of course, even then, it was a weapon beyond comparison to conventional bombs.
Ben-Gurion asked me again, visibly stunned.
“You’re really saying you’ll share a weapon like this with us?”
“If the Jewish community provides the scientists, capital, and technology, what’s the difficulty? We’re prepared to share not just nukes, but even more advanced things.”
Pushing independent development would leave us short on capital, tech, and expertise across the board.
Even the Soviets had diligently stolen American tech, and it still took them four years of actual development.
Trying to do it alone would just split us open.
“Prime Minister, thank you. The Zionist Organization will cooperate to the fullest.”
Ben-Gurion didn’t mention the strength of the Palestinian Jewish community—that is, Israel.
Instead, he promised to mobilize the power of the Jewish diaspora behind it.
That was the real power backing them that I’d wanted from the start, anyway—not Israel itself.
“Hearing Your Excellency’s promise puts my mind at ease. You said the new nation’s name would be Israel?”
“That’s the plan.”
“We can’t issue an official declaration of support when Israel is founded, but we’ll provide tacit accommodations.”
“Thank you, Prime Minister.”
We shook hands firmly right there.
With that, Daehan had secured two alliances.
One was the security pact with the Soviet Union.
The other was the nuclear-sharing alliance with Israel.
Did that make those two true allies?
No.
As I’d made clear to the public, Daehan’s only true ally was ourselves.
In any case, with the Jewish community’s cooperation pledged, we wouldn’t lag far behind the Soviets in the nuclear arms race.
That meant our safety net was in place.
Knowing the nukes would be ready on time eased my mind.
Amid all this, our military attaché in the United States sent an important report.
“Your Excellency, the United States has developed nuclear weapons. They demonstrated their power firsthand at a New Mexico test site, with observers from various nations present. As long as America monopolizes this weapon, we shouldn’t confront Washington rashly.”
The nuke had come sooner than expected.
Mid-1946 meant it appeared exactly one year later than in the original timeline.
Timing-wise, it showed America’s development hadn’t been delayed as much as one might think.
“America already has nukes. Sooner than I thought.”
For the next few years, America would monopolize nukes.
For a while, the balance of power would tilt toward Washington.
“No war in Italy for the time being, then.”
With America holding nukes, the odds of Stalin challenging them were slim.
Not zero, because Moscow might underestimate their power.
Still, it worked in our favor.
No war for now was to our advantage.
In that sense, we needed to catch our breath and bolster our forces.
With nukes soon secured, our focus would shift to delivery systems.
The best delivery in this era was strategic bombers, but they cost a fortune to produce.
For cost-effectiveness, rockets were the way to go.
Werner von Braun had gone to America, but Germany still had plenty of rocket experts to replace him.
We’d scooped up top talents like Walter Dornberger, Arthur Rudolf, and Eugen Sänger.
They might not match von Braun, but they had the chops to build the new rockets we wanted.
Most had been kidnapped like the others, so they weren’t cooperative at first.
But once we brought their families and promised massive research funding, they came around.
“Daehan won’t skimp on funding your research, Doctors.”
“If that’s true, then at least give us freedom of movement first.”
“We’ll ease into that. For now, think of it as security escorts.”
With their help, we successfully reverse-engineered and began reproducing the Nazi rockets we’d acquired.
We were also developing rockets surpassing Nazi tech, but practical deployment would take time.
I gave two tasks to Eunsung, in charge of rocket mass production; the Korean Aviation Technology Research Institute, handling development; and the Army Ministry, managing procurement.
One was intercontinental ballistic missiles.
To compensate for our lack of strategic bombers, ICBMs were essential.
The other was submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
When tech lagged, you needed a stealthy way to sneak close to the enemy and unleash missiles.
That was SLBMs.
Our goals boiled down to that.
Nuclear deterrence through powerful delivery systems for nukes.
Of course, for nukes to deter, someone might have to play sacrificial lamb.
Naturally, we were preparing other weapons to maintain balance before deterrence fully kicked in.
The other two parts of NBC.
Biological and chemical weapons.
We already had biological weapons in the works.
Namely, Agent Orange.
In my view, no biological weapon beat Agent Orange.
It rendered soil unusable for over a century—making it more devastating than nukes in that regard.
Hence the nickname “the poor man’s nuke.”
The Army had set up an infectious disease research institute, testing pathogens like Agent Orange, Ebola, cholera, diphtheria, typhoid, smallpox, and typhus.
We didn’t have huge stockpiles yet.
But that didn’t mean our biowarfare capability was weak.
We could outsource production to university labs and companies across the empire for rapid mass production.
By our own assessment, we ranked fourth globally in biowarfare.
Just below America, Britain, and the Soviets.
That was only because we hadn’t poured time and money into it yet—we could catch up quickly.
Chemical weapons were decently prepared too.
Daehan’s original chemwarfare wasn’t strong, but thanks to Germany’s generous tree, we’d acquired plenty.
Sarin, tabun, and soman.
These nerve agents had destructive power leagues beyond World War I gases.
Sure, they fell short of later VX, but they were plenty for battlefield use.
We didn’t hide our possession of bio and chem weapons.
They weren’t meant for actual use so much as a warning: “We have these, so don’t touch us.”
It fit perfectly with Daehan’s porcupine strategy.
Chen Gongbo’s regime and Japan’s tributary states didn’t know about our nuke program, but they were aware of the open secret of our chem and bio weapons.
So they begged us to hand some over.
Chen Gongbo’s regime, especially, felt acutely threatened by Chungkuk’s expansion and pleaded desperately for aid.
“Exporting to China doesn’t seem so bad.”
Given Chen Gongbo’s regime’s weak military, exporting chem weapons wouldn’t hurt.
Once we signaled willingness to export chem weapons, Foreign Minister Chu Minyi of Chen Gongbo’s regime flew straight to Pyongyang.
“We are grateful for Your Excellency’s gracious words.”
Chu Minyi bowed repeatedly.
“As allies, China and Korea—we have to provide that much support.”
Exporting chem weapons to China wasn’t a secret, so a few days later, Chungkuk was foaming at the mouth.
“Korean imperialists are scheming to turn the mainland into a land of death! Chen Gongbo, puppet head of the comprador regime, must apologize to the mainland people and dispose of the chemical weapons immediately!”
That didn’t mean Chen Gongbo would scrap them.
So Chungkuk pointed fingers at us, demanding we stop selling more chem weapons to the mainland.
Chungkuk’s bluster wouldn’t last forever.
Once we had nukes and delivery systems, they’d bow their heads again.
Nukes had a way of instilling humility even in reds like Chungkuk.
“Your Excellency, we can’t let this slide. We must warn them against Chungkuk’s insolence.”
Our military argued that Chungkuk saw us as weak after arms reductions and we needed to show our strength.
Even without pushing for territorial gains, old habits died hard—if there was an excuse to dance with swords in China, their hands itched for the hilt.
No wonder I couldn’t trust these guys with the country.
“Maybe I should just make it hereditary.”
The thought crossed my mind.
But why pass on this hot seat to anyone?
Especially not to my one-year-old nursing infant daughter.
“Well, long-term, abolishing Yushin is the answer.”
Sticking with Yushin dictatorship like this, who knew what disasters my successors might cause with all this power.
These guys were still dangerous militarists who hadn’t fully shed their ways.
“For now, leave it be.”
“Yes? But, Your Excellency, if Chungkuk takes us lightly, it’ll destabilize the mainland situation.”
“Imja.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“The issue is the economy. Enough with the nonsense.”
I didn’t tack on a Clinton-style “stupid.”
They were my subordinates, after all—I endured it.