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Chapter 65: Seoul's Nightmare
Chapter 65: Seoul's Nightmare
Chapter 65: Seoul's Nightmare
As May approached, the peak of spring, North Korea faced a devastating food crisis.
There were frequent deaths from starvation in the military and even in Pyongyang, and some of the frontline army corps had to be disbanded.
Foreign media reported several times on the situation in North Korea, and various countries offered assistance through the UN or NGOs.
Unable to endure any longer, North Korea requested food aid from the South Korean government.
Usually, when making such a request, it was customary to go through China, and they did not do it directly.
They mostly asked indirectly through civilian organizations, saying that they wanted to create an atmosphere of reconciliation.
The representatives of the pro-North aid groups showed positive reactions, thinking that North Korea had finally opened its doors, but the Blue House flatly refused.
?First of all, you should apologize for the DMZ infiltration. And give up your nuclear weapons. Then we will be willing to provide food aid.
The response was so simple that it was a willingness to provide food aid, not a promise.
North Korea was furious at this mockery of their supreme dignity and said they would turn the entire territory of South Korea into a sea of fire.
The National Assembly repeatedly asked him to restrain himself, but Jo Hyung-geun did not listen.
Silla Group had already completed the NCM power.
Now that North Korea’s nuclear weapons were blocked, there was nothing to fear.
If he pushed forward with the 7th Corps, North Korea would be over that day.
He needed an opportunity for that, but North Korea cleverly avoided direct provocation.
They looked starved to death, but they didn’t have the resources to wage war.
President Jo Hyung-geun called Yu Jiha, who agreed with him, and expressed his regret.
“Those bastards are really cunning. They even withdrew all their GPs. Maybe they’re afraid of doing something crazy.”
“Personally, I think it’s a relief. These days, the atmosphere is so tense that a war could break out if anything goes wrong.”
“Let’s see···The last time we had a full-scale war crisis was during the second Yeonpyeong Island shelling incident? At that time, our air force planes went as far as bombing. It was canceled because the US urged us to refrain from escalation.”
“It was the same in the first one.”
“But this time it will be different.”
President Jo Hyung-geun’s eyes sparkled.
“The US no longer has the same influence on the Korean Peninsula as before. China and Japan are the same. It’s only us and North Korea left.”
It was unbelievable that a person who became president would say such a thing.
He continued his reckless remarks and Yu Jiha politely agreed with him.
But their conversation did not last long.
Because there was a roar in the sky above the Blue House.
There was a tearing sound and then a faint vibration throughout the annex.
“Mr. President!”
The secretaries and guards rushed in and dragged Yu Jiha to the underground bunker as well.
On the night of May 10th, North Korea’s sudden artillery fire shook Seoul.
?Master, it has begun?
The androids who infiltrated the Hwanghae South Province artillery brigade made an excuse.
No apology is necessary
There are several signs that show up when the military wants to show its offensive will in modern times.
The movement of military supplies, the increase of radio communication, the redeployment of troops and vehicles, etc.
There are more signs than these, but if you have reliable reconnaissance means, you can find out about the attack at least a few hours in advance.
However, this was only possible when all the reconnaissance means deployed on the Korean Peninsula were intact.
Currently, most of the US forces in Korea had withdrawn, creating a gap in reconnaissance.
And that was one of the things that the US military often pointed out to the Korean military.
?They had no problem with firepower, but they lacked the reconnaissance and logistics support to deploy it.
The Korean military officers knew this well, but they had no solution.
It was a tendency that when the economy was bad, the defense budget was cut first, and Korea had faced the worst economic crisis in recent years.
So it was natural that the defense budget was slashed mercilessly.
Fortunately or unfortunately, a weapon system that could compensate for this appeared with Yu Jiha’s emergence, but it was not a fundamental solution.
In other words, the Korean military had the potential to fight well, but they had poor eyes and ears.
That was the cause of this situation.
Boom, boom!
At 11 p.m. on the 10th night, a strange noise rang out in the area between Gimpo and Goyang, which bordered the Han River.
People complained about what kind of fighter training it was at this time.
“Ugh, it’s so noisy.”
“Tanks and armored vehicles and fighters, what a mess.”
“They’re not going to invade North Korea, just calm down.”
The front-line divisions had been moving quite busily lately.
Numerous trucks came in and out of the bases and the security was strengthened.
It was common to see tanks and armored vehicles training in the north of Gyeonggi-do, but recently the frequency had increased a lot.
As if they were preparing for war.
Most people thought that war was something that would never happen.
They had become numb to North Korea’s threats after living peacefully for nearly 80 years.
But this time it was different.
About 300 rockets fired from multiple rocket launchers entered the Seoul metropolitan area.
They were so outdated that they had a high failure rate, but they fired a lot of them.
They were detected by radar bases and artillery radars in various places, but it was too late to respond immediately.
There were few means to intercept rocket launchers in Korea.
PAC-3 anti-aircraft missiles were fired and shot down many of them, but there were too many rockets.
The altitude was too high for frontline air defense units’ Cheonma missiles and Balkans to intercept them.
And so, ultimately, 200 rockets entered Seoul.
By this point, a loud air raid siren rang out across Seoul.
The cars passing by Gwanghwamun crashed and got stuck, and rockets fell on them as they descended.
Until then, people didn’t realize what was happening.
The rockets were too fast to see.
“What? Why is there a siren all of a sudden?”
“Hey, can you move that crashed car?”
Complaints poured out among them as iron beams shot out from the Presidential Blue House and the Ministry of National Defense building.
In the dark night sky, bright golden lasers crossed the sky.
“Wow…”
“What’s that? Fireworks?”
There were hardly any people who knew about iron beams because they were developed and deployed in secret.
The golden lasers scanned the rockets that penetrated the air defense network and exploded them.
“Ah!”
“It’s war!”
The people who crowded Gwanghwamun ran away in panic.
People jumped out of dozens of cars that had stopped on the road.
“Did we have such weapons?”
“That’s iron beam! It’s from America!”
“You don’t know much. We made that.”
“We made such weapons?”
Meanwhile, iron beams continued to scan and destroy large-caliber rockets one by one.
From below, it looked like fireworks.
But there was a fundamental difference from fireworks.
When the rockets exploded, they created dozens or hundreds of fragments.
Iron beams intercepted the fragments as well, but they couldn’t stop them completely.
And so metal fragments fell on Gwanghwamun and in front of the Blue House.
Also, one rocket that iron beams failed to shoot down hit the Blue House’s Spring and Autumn Pavilion directly.
Bang!
When the large-caliber rocket warhead exploded, the ground shook and the entire Spring and Autumn Pavilion flew away at once.
There were no staff members at this time, but it was enough to surprise the security guards and guardsmen.
A fire broke out in the nearby forest, making it look like the whole Blue House was burning up.
Police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks flocked everywhere and formed a scene of chaos.
People didn’t realize what had happened until then.
On internet communities and SNS sites, people made a fuss about war.
?Is that fucking North Korea attacking us with rocket launchers? What are we doing?
?It’s war! We’re all dead???
?Ah, fuck, I threw away my uniform, what do I do?
?Calm down. It’s just a few shells that fell, right?
?You’re fucking crazy? They fired artillery at Seoul and you think we can just let it go?
?These North Korean bastards fired shells at Yeonpyeong Island twice, right? But the war didn’t break out, did it?
?Are Yeonpyeong Island and Seoul the same? You fucking bastard.
They were both territories of South Korea, but they couldn’t be in the same situation realistically.
Seoul was the capital of South Korea and the core area where ten million people lived.
Attacking here meant nothing but waging war.
People were ecstatic about the laser that exploded the rocket across the sky.
?Did you see the laser show in the night sky? I won’t forget that until I die.
?Hey, did we have an iron beam deployed in our country? Isn’t that developed by the US?
?This is top secret, but the ion beam was developed by Shilla Hi-Tech.
?Yu Ji-ha again···
?There’s a video of the laser show on that site.
?Fuck, it’s awesome···You guys have to see it.
?I should have seen it with my own eyes.
On the other hand, there were people who were freaking out and running around saying it was war.
?It’s war?????????
?There’s a North Korean tank in front of my house???
?Guys, can the college entrance exam be canceled this year? Answer me if you’re sure.
?Kid, go study···
This atmosphere was completely shattered by the news that the Blue House was attacked.
?The Blue House was blown up? Did President Park die too?
?Wow, crazy. This is really a war situation.
?What are our fighters doing? Hurry up and scramble and blow up the palace in Pyongyang!
?I don’t know if they have the mind to control that.
?Guys, hurry up and buy food and necessities. This time it’s really a war situation.
?Will there be a war···
?A rocket fell on Seoul and you’re just going to take it? We have to go to war at least.
?Then it’s the second Korean War. The US troops are all gone now, aren’t they?
?We’re fucked.
…
As soon as Seoul was attacked, the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued Defcon 3.
There were only two cases in Korea where this level was issued: the Panmunjom axe murder incident and the Aung San bombing terror.
The reason why they issued Defcon so quickly was because the recent relations with North Korea were so bad.
In a situation where war could break out at any time, a rocket fell on Seoul, so the Joint Chiefs of Staff took a bold move.
If North Korea shows its intention to carry out a follow-up attack, Defcon 2 will be issued.
It will enter a full-fledged combat readiness posture and mobilize reservists to start a war.
All front-line units were banned from leaving and each unit ordered those who had gone out or overnight to return as soon as possible.
As the military stepped up like this, the National Police Agency also issued an emergency alert for the metropolitan area and entered an emergency standby.
Now, the people of South Korea turned on their TVs and radios and paid attention to the breaking news.
Emergency broadcasts were broadcasted and announcers were busy delivering news from the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Yes, this is new news. The unidentified rockets that hit Jongno and Yongsan were confirmed to have been fired from new 300mm artillery.”
“The firing location is estimated to be Gangryeong in South Hwanghae Province, and the Army Artillery Corps is currently firing artillery fire. The damage situation has not been reported yet.”
“Just now from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The first rocket fired from the artillery brigade was over 500 rounds, but 200 rounds fell into the sea or reclaimed land, and about 100 rounds were shot down by Patriot missiles. The remaining 200 rounds entered Seoul airspace.”
“In response, the Army activated artillery radar to track rockets, but subsequent responses are unknown.”
The people who gathered in front of the large screen on the street were annoyed.
“What? So we just got hit one-sidedly without any response?”
“Just wait a minute.”
“That thing will come out soon! Iron beam!”
“What is an iron beam, not Iron Man?”
The people who turned their heads to the TV were stunned by the sudden laser that filled the screen.
Dozens of golden lasers that rose from the ground crossed the sky and blew something up.
Hundreds of colorful explosions occurred in Seoul’s sky.
It was too precious a scene to watch only on the screen.
The announcer also missed the comment while watching it and bowed his head for a moment.
“Ah, the scene you just saw is a defense system called iron beam, which was developed in Korea. It was developed by Silla Hi-Tech and can block more than 10 shells or rockets at the same time.”
“The power is as you can see. Of the 200 rockets, only a few were not shot down, and most of them exploded in the air.”
“The damage situation is being counted, and no deaths have been announced yet…Ah…I’m sorry. This is news that just came in. The Blue House Chunchoo Hall was attacked by a rocket and completely collapsed.”
The people were speechless at the news that the Blue House was attacked.
Soon, the completely collapsed Chunchoo Hall and the wildfire that broke out on Bukhansan were revealed.
“So that’s what those North Korean bastards did, right?”
“Can they attack like this because they refused to beg for food?”
“These bastards are completely crazy.”
They each vented their anger at North Korea.
Among them, there were people who shouted why they didn’t advance north.
The person who opposed him raised his voice.
“If you advance north, it’s war! It’s not someone else, it’s you who dies!”
“Then are we just going to take it like this? A shell fell on our heads!”
“Next time it’s nuclear! Do you know how many people die when a nuclear bomb falls on Seoul?”
“Lie down flat and beg North Korea like that! Give them the whole of South Korea, right?”
“What words should I communicate···”
The man who turned his body as if he was absurd was startled by the surrounding atmosphere.
They all opened their eyes and looked at him.
They didn’t rush in and grab his collar, but the atmosphere was too fierce.
This kind of nerve war was happening everywhere.
There were few people who shouted that war shouldn’t happen, and most of them gritted their teeth at North Korea.
Finally, their patience ran out.
And someone who ran out of patience entered the National Crisis Management Center Situation Room, commonly known as the Blue House Bunker.