Chapter 208
Chapter 208
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Economic Development Five-Year Plan
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No matter how chaotic the world got, Korea had steadily pushed forward with its Five-Year Economic Development Plan.
The results of twenty years of economic development, from 1938 to the present, had manifested in the form of a mighty economic powerhouse threatening even America.
"Dol-yi’s dad. Take a break first."
"I’m working with a tractor here. Gotta finish this first before resting."
Scenes of people working the fields with machinery were now commonplace in rural Korea.
Even in remote areas without machinery, large draft horses and oxen were plentiful.
These changes led to an explosive increase in agricultural production.
Corn and wheat yields had surged explosively, in proportion to the empire’s economic growth.
In turn, exports of Manchurian millet to Japan had dwindled to less than a quarter of previous levels.
"That stuff doesn’t even make money. Why bother growing it?"
This shift hit the Japanese hard.
Japan, which had long relied on Manchurian millet for a significant portion of its food supply, had no choice but to switch to the pricier Korean wheat and corn.
But that was Japan’s problem. Korean farm households saw their incomes soar far beyond previous levels.
Korea used surplus corn exports to Japan for pig farming.
Koreans had always raised a fair number of cattle and pigs, but after corn production ramped up, livestock numbers exploded.
This made meat consumption common even among the lower classes.
It wasn’t just meat culture that changed.
"Make sure the kids get their milk every day."
The Lee Seong-jun regime aggressively promoted the slogan of providing milk to children.
To that end, Korea actively imported dairy cows from advanced nations like Denmark.
Of course, were the Five-Year Plan’s achievements limited to agriculture?
Far from it.
The biggest change was the spread of refrigeration facilities.
Household fridge penetration wasn’t all that high yet, but most institutions and companies had at least one large refrigeration unit.
The amount of ice produced was staggering.
As a result, the informal winter ice harvesting from rivers—common in the early days of the Lee Seong-jun regime—had vanished entirely.
The lower-class workers once involved in that now moved to safer jobs in mines and such.
With ice available year-round, revolutions swept through distribution.
Previously dominated by salted meat and fish, markets now allowed ordinary people to handle fresh goods regularly.
"The world’s gotten a lot better."
It was these tangible changes that made people feel the world improving.
Changes were massive in light and heavy industry too.
Before Lee Seong-jun took power, light industry was just clumsy imitators of America and Europe.
There was no such thing as national product standards.
That changed with Lee Seong-jun’s introduction of the "K Certification Mark."
"Products that don’t meet minimum quality standards can’t get K Certification."
The regime modeled it after Germany’s national quality control system.
This completely revolutionized the light industry market, centered on textiles, sundries, and food.
Products failing standards got the boot from distribution channels.
"You wanna die? Who told you to manage quality like that?"
"W-Well, sausages can have a few rats crawling around sometimes, right?"
"Sanitation violation! You’re shut down."
The Lee Seong-jun regime cracked down hard on light industry.
But it wasn’t all stick—no carrot either.
Companies passing standards got export support and subsidies.
The result? Korean light industry transformed from foreign copycats into firms with real independent competitiveness.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the power that conquered Russia stemmed from Lee Seong-jun’s oversight.
"Eighteen-degree lunchbox. Wanna try a taste?"
Heavy industry faced equally intense regime oversight.
Here, the focus was strangling the supply chain.
"Ahem. That issue stemmed from defective parts supply, so we’ve decided not to take from you anymore."
"Hold up."
"Yes?"
"Cutting off bad parts shipments—that’s it?"
"Of course?"
"You’re getting fined too, you bastard."
"No way—there’s no law like that!"
"Right here. Think His Excellency’s words on quality control are bullshit?"
Companies grumbled about the regime’s meddling, but they’d gotten so much already—subsidies galore—and bit their tongues.
Thanks to this quality control, Korean companies earned praise: design aside, performance rivaled the West’s.
"Korean goods are cheap and high quality."
The government’s efforts underpinned Korea’s market share grabs worldwide.
The regime’s long-term push across all industries didn’t spare services.
If anything, it intervened most aggressively there.
"How much you scouting prices up to?"
"Price scouting violation! Enjoy jail grub."
The Korean government routinely sent market inspectors to crack down on price scouting, hawking, and the like.
Violators went straight to the slammer.
"No, that was a mistake."
"We warned you during the grace period, didn’t we? When the state says jump, you jump. Law’s a rubber band for you to stretch?"
Once you broke the law under Lee Seong-jun, it was straight to jail.
This merciless crackdown brought some order to services.
Of course, the Five-Year Plan wasn’t just about industry growth and oversight.
No.
"The key to national development is infrastructure."
Over twenty years, the Lee Seong-jun regime went all-in on ports, railroads, roads, and airports.
Rail totaled 60,000 km; roads, 250,000 km.
National highways barely topped 20,000 km, but compared to pre-Lee Seong-jun days, it was staggering.
Overseas observers fretted over Korea’s investments.
"Korea’s punching above its weight—building too much transport infra for its land size."
Not entirely wrong, really.
Predicted usage lagged behind the scale, fact was.
But the regime was confident it could make up the difference.
That confidence rested on aggressive pro-natal policies.
The state twisted itself into knots with every incentive to boost births.
It improved single-mother stigma by having Lee Seong-jun adopt them as daughters; multi-child families got every perk imaginable.
Not enough? Imported Germans and Jews to settle.
"We’ll give land, houses, jobs. Just have kids. State handles the rest once they’re born."
To maximize births, it minimized female mobilization even during that brutal war.
"If women’s movements gain traction, women leave home for society. Better not to mobilize them."
Long-term, the regime aimed for 5.0+ fertility.
"Births are patriotism. Daehan’s power lies in its children’s numbers."
Efforts paid off—population growth accelerated.
By 1948, including Germans, Korea hit about 56 million; by 1958, over 62 million.
62 million matched prewar Germany’s home population.
Enough to eye the 80-million minimum for an independent economic bloc.
Korea dispersed this boom via satellite cities around metros.
"We’ll build mass transit for commuting."
Early on, the government used hub-city strategies concentrating resources; later, it emphasized regional spread.
The massive infra spend was part of dragging population and firms to the provinces.
"Tax breaks if we go regional?"
"We’ll slash taxes big-time. Head to the provinces."
The government fiercely guarded against capital-region concentration.
"Isn’t concentrating resources in the capital natural?"
"How’s a body survive with just a head—no limbs?"
Thanks to the regime’s all-out block on Pyongyang focus, the capital region’s population stayed capped around ten million.
Thus, Lee Seong-jun’s Five-Year Economic Development Plan fully remade Korea into a nation matching its blueprint.
Like Stalin turning a premodern agrarian state into a nuclear power, Lee Seong-jun refined a militaristic relic into a sleek modern state.
To any observer, Korea now stood shoulder-to-shoulder with First World powers—a proper great one.
Outwardly? Unquestioned world number three.
Maybe more.
In truth, the regime dreamed bigger.
"Finish this Five-Year Plan, and Daehan surges to world’s number-two economic giant."
Success-spoiled bureaucrats never dreamed of failure.
After all, His Excellency—who drew the blueprint—said it was possible.
How could it not be?
"If His Excellency guides one more Five-Year Plan, Goldwater’s nothing—even the Soviets."
Bureaucrats hoped he’d last ten, twenty more years.
Then America too could fall, they thought.
Unlike the militarist era’s baseless bravado clashing with great powers, Koreans now exuded confidence on solid metrics.
Korea no longer dreamed of threatening the world with arms.
Instead, it envisioned elegant dominion.
‘Daehan will rule the world through economy.’