Chapter 316
Chapter 316
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Side Story 7: Student Movement
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Guiding the Republic was Ruler Kim Jeong-gil, who relied on three pillars to sustain his regime.
Intelligence politics, represented by the National Intelligence Service and the Defense Security Command; national development, exemplified by high economic growth; and the lingering halo left by the era's giant, Lee Seong-jun.
Kim Jeong-gil steered the Republic using these three pillars as his supports.
Among them, the one Kim Jeong-gil relied on most was intelligence politics through the intelligence agencies.
It was only natural, given that he had long wielded intelligence agencies as tools under the shadow of the Lee Seong-jun regime.
In this process, the revival of one-on-one meetings between agency heads and the president came naturally.
The National Intelligence Service director and the Homeland Security Minister could meet the president year-round without rest; the Defense Security Command commander once a week; and the Intelligence Command and National Reconnaissance commanders once a month.
This shift in the status of the intelligence agencies naturally led to an expansion of their influence.
Starting with the National Intelligence Service, which had largely withdrawn from domestic affairs, extending its hand once more, the agencies' reach spread into every sector of society.
“Once again, the time has come to spread the eyes and ears of Geumsu Mountain across the Republic.”
Kim Jeong-gil backed his rule with the power of this intelligence politics.
In reality, the power of this intelligence politics was a great help to Kim Jeong-gil's governance.
From suppressing hardline nationalists to crushing opposition to labor market liberalization, the intelligence agencies ruthlessly eliminated any elements that hindered Kim Jeong-gil's rule.
Such activities by the intelligence agencies dealt a major setback to Korea's already shallow-rooted democracy.
“How can it be acceptable for intelligence agencies to strut around like that?”
The pronounced retreat of democracy during the Kim Jeong-gil era was more than enough to catalyze the student movement.
“We intellectuals must not stand by and watch democracy recede. We have to raise our voices in proportion to our education.”
Korean university students, who received world-class education, launched various student movements protesting the decline of democracy in Korea.
It began as ordinary club activities, but over time, the scale of the student movement grew larger.
Amid this, the harsh sentences handed down to workers arrested for opposing labor market liberalization greatly provoked the student movement.
“The Kim Jeong-gil regime talks of democracy but is a violent one that doesn't hesitate to intimidate and extort the people. Kim Jeong-gil, stop oppressing the workers!”
They made their opposition to the Kim Jeong-gil regime clear through a general strike and class boycotts.
“Why not crush them aggressively right now?”
The Defense Security Command, which was monitoring university districts, insisted on preemptively arresting the student movement leaders.
But unexpectedly, the presidential office rejected arresting the ringleaders.
“Don't stir up unnecessary noise. Just let the kids raise their voices. As long as it doesn't make a single line in the press, it'll be fine.”
The government feared that touching university students—many of whom were children of the prosperous middle class—would complicate matters unnecessarily.
For a while, the Korean government took a lukewarm stance on the matter.
However, as the student protests showed no signs of dying down and instead spread to high schools and surrounding areas, the government changed its mind.
“The students are getting too noisy. Isn't there some way to handle this?”
“How about diverting the university students' attention?”
“Be specific.”
“Scare them with the prospect of an employment crisis.”
The current Pyongyang-area university students could pick and choose their jobs.
But what if that premise collapsed?
Would they still be spouting such well-fed nonsense?
“Shifting the frame from warm ideals to cold reality, eh?”
The Korean government immediately collaborated with the chaebols to leak grim forecasts to the media.
“The Korea Economic Research Institute forecasts next year's economic growth at 7%, maintaining high growth, but major corporations' job openings are expected to barely increase.”
While spreading such news, the Korean government scheduled job fairs whenever protests peaked, gauging the students' reactions.
“Huh?”
The university students' reactions were mixed.
Those who had joined the student movement lightly, or out of a sense of duty as educated intellectuals, withdrew like the tide.
With an employment crisis looming, who had the leisure to sit around protesting?
“No, bro. How can you do this? We all agreed to fight to the end.”
“My parents live for me alone. Sorry.”
Few could steadfastly uphold the greater cause of democracy in the face of survival issues.
Even if the hardline activists who remained to the end raised their voices, it wasn't easy to move the indifferent majority with just them.
The Korean government used various operations to divide and fracture the isolated activists.
“Is Pyongyang practicing democracy or what? Is this the right thing to do now?”
“Of course they're doing it, which is why it's only this much. If they weren't, do you think you'd even be breathing right now?”
Under the regime's merciless pressure, the student activists moved more cautiously than before.
“Our identities must never be exposed.”
Cell organizations, secret societies.
Student movement members at each university used aliases and disguises in everyday life.
They even avoided conspicuous groups like student councils.
Of course, even this didn't evade government surveillance.
“We hear everything, see everything.”
With the leash off, the intelligence agencies wiretapped and surveilled Korea as they pleased when needed.
Students used public phones to minimize exposure, but even that offered no guarantees.
“The Republic is the one with tech to automatically record phone calls. You think you can dodge our eyes by racking your puny brains?”
The students' precautions meant nothing against the Korean Intelligence Command's wiretapping technology.
Based on the information thus obtained, the National Intelligence Service periodically kidnapped student movement ringleaders to safe houses and terrorized them.
“Hyung-sik. Know where you are? Geumsu Mountain.”
The National Intelligence Service held the students for a few days, scared them, then extracted conversion statements.
“You know what happens if you break this promise?”
“Yes, yes.”
The student activists had to watch out for these converts as well.
Surveillance eyes raining down relentlessly from all sides.
The student activists felt exhausted.
“We can't keep going like this.”
In the process, a significant number dropped out of the student movement.
The intelligence agencies used these dropouts to frame the student movement as communist infiltration.
“Turns out they were all hardcore reds.”
Regardless of Moscow being Pyongyang's ally, views on Marx-Leninists in Korea were poor.
Oh, obviously.
“Reds being our allies and sharing my family's wealth are separate issues.”
Thus, public sentiment toward homegrown communists wasn't favorable.
“Oh, they were that kind? Better steer clear.”
Since these were testimonies from actual former participants rather than government propaganda, the red frame stuck effectively.
“We fed you hot rice to study, and you go to university to play commie?”
On top of that, the government added one more tactic.
“Start violent protests?”
“Don't want to?”
“N-no.”
The National Intelligence Service used converts (agents provocateurs) to incite radical protests within the student movement.
“Batons and Molotov cocktails flying everywhere. The true face of the student movement, which fancied itself refined intellectuals, is revealed.”
As planned, the National Intelligence Service hammered the radical protests through the media.
It didn't take long for sympathy toward the student movement to turn cold.
“If they're uneducated, fine, but university students who've had every opportunity—what the hell is this? No law or order in the country?”
Generations who remembered the strict order of the Lee Seong-jun era were appalled by the violence.
“Since when did Korea tolerate such radical protests? The government needs to give them a harsh lesson to straighten them out.”
With public opinion turning, the government picked up the baton.
“This should be enough preparation. Begin.”
The Korean government once again mobilized police forces to brutally crush the student movement.
Justification and public opinion were both on the Korean government's side.
“Stop. Please stop hitting.”
The Korean police arrested over 3,000 university students, indicting 400 of them.
From meticulous framing to precise and swift suppression.
The thorough methods Korea displayed in smashing unions and student movements drew the world's attention.
“If we'd known Pyongyang's techniques, we'd have done the same ages ago.”
“Exactly. Otherwise, we wouldn't have bowed to those 68 Revolution thugs and whatnot.”
This prompted countries worldwide to actively adopt Korea's “protest suppression techniques.”
Even nearby Chinese spheres were no exception.
“Dictator Miao Bin, hold free elections!”
“Free elections? Sure, we'll do them. But no tolerance for violent protests!”
Even the student movement in Nanjing was brutally crushed using Korean-style suppression techniques.
With such an image, Korea came across less like a democracy and more like a symbol of authoritarianism.
Dictators welcomed the shift in Pyongyang's image.
“What democracy in Korea? Those guys are authoritarians to the bone. Don't they know Confucian hierarchy?”
The Korean government wasn't unaware of the changing perceptions of Pyongyang.
“We know, but so what.”
Knowing didn't mean they could change it.
It was like inertia.
In the end, Kim Jeong-gil was a man like the shadow of the era Lee Seong-jun left behind.
How could he protect light he had never known?
Kim Jeong-gil himself was aware of this.
‘I can keep Daehan running forward with what Your Excellency bequeathed. But I lack the ability to protect its democracy.’
Kim Jeong-gil lit a cigarette with the lighter Lee Seong-jun had passed down.
The taste of the domestically produced cigarette, which he smoked after a long time, was bitterly acrid.
Perhaps the authoritarianism he had perceived as water tasted like this.
Kim Jeong-gil fell deep into thought, gazing at His Excellency's portrait.