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Chapter 66: Pulling The Trigger
Chapter 66: Pulling The Trigger
Chapter 66: Pulling The Trigger
“The president is here.”
“Skip the formalities and take a seat.”
President Jo Hyung-geun sat down on his chair with a flushed face.
Even though Yu Ji-ha, who had nothing to do with the NSC, followed him in, no one dared to say anything.
As soon as he sat down, the ministers and secretaries started to report.
“We have connected to five nuclear bunkers. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Gyeryongdae are also about to be connected.”
“Here is the report on the casualties. Currently, there are 35 injured and 6 critically wounded. No deaths have been confirmed so far.”
“Most of the rockets were intercepted by the iron beam and exploded in mid-air. One hit the annex and destroyed it completely. We are still assessing the damage to civilian facilities.”
“We responded with artillery fire from the 1st and 6th Artillery Brigades using Cheonmu missiles. The damage inflicted is unknown.”
Hmmm…
President Jo listened to the reports silently with a displeased expression.
He had cheered for war when the secretaries first rushed into his office, but what was this?
The rocket shower that was supposed to rain down at a rate of over 10,000 per hour was gone, and only 500 rockets were fired, of which only 200 reached Seoul.
He interrupted a staff officer’s report and asked.
“What about the follow-up attack?”
“There is no sign of it yet.”
“They should have sent reconnaissance planes by now, right? Of course, we have air superiority. Give me a brief summary.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Did the Trans-Yalu Army show any signs of war?”
“···They are not moving at all. The radio communication is at normal level.”
“They fired rockets at Seoul and there is no follow-up attack? Doesn’t that seem strange to you?”
It certainly did.
Attacking Seoul with rockets was not something that could be dismissed as a mistake.
But it was too small to be considered a declaration of war.
500 rockets might sound impressive, but they were less than the firepower of one artillery brigade.
If they wanted to attack Seoul, they should have poured at least 20 times more.
Could this be called a firm intention to start a war?
“···”
President Jo pondered for a while and then looked at the monitor connected to the director of the National Intelligence Service.
“What about the Duman River area?”
“There is no movement in the Northern Front. There are many defectors taking advantage of the night, but it’s nothing unusual.”
“The Northern Front has only 40% of its normal power, right?”
“It would be around 50% at most if we stretch it.”
They had gone down to suppress the riots in Beijing and other major cities.
The president asked again.
“What if we advance north? Do you think the Chick Plan will be activated?”
“The 79th and 78th Armies have lost a significant number of troops, but the 80th Army is intact.”
“The 80th Army was mechanized, right? Of all places, only there remained…”
It was well known that the Chinese army would penetrate deep into North Korea in case of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula.
The problem was the 80th Army of the Northern Front, which was a rapid reaction force that was ready to move south at any time with mechanized units.
Their goal was to occupy Pyongyang and secure Hamgyongnam-do through post-war negotiations.
That way, they would have a port that could lead them from the East Sea to the Pacific Ocean.
It was China’s long-cherished desire to enter the Pacific Ocean.
Of course, it was unlikely that China, which was at war with Taiwan, would achieve that plan.
But if even one group army entered North Korea, it would be very awkward for the Korean army to deal with.
Because China’s nuclear power might target the Korean Peninsula.
‘Even without that, encountering the Chinese army on North Korean soil is a failure in itself…’
President Jo’s goal was to permanently confirm the Korean Peninsula as an integral territory of South Korea.
He had no intention of giving up even an inch of land to China.
He looked at Yu Ji-ha, who had followed him in and sat in a corner.
He was a quick-witted person who could understand what he meant by his gaze.
?Are you okay?
He stretched out his hand in the corner and made a zero with his other hand.
He could block 50 more nuclear warheads.
China wouldn’t use that much nuclear power anyway, so he thought he could handle one group army.
But then, a loud bell rang in the bunker.
The secretary-general checked the caller and said.
“Mr. President, it’s the White House.”
“Give it to me for now.”
The dialogue between the two leaders was not smooth.
The participants of the National Security Council could not know the details of the conversation, but they learned the intention of President McKinley.
It was to prevent escalation.
On the other hand, President Jo Hyung-geun insisted that North Korea had clearly shown its intention to start a war by attacking Seoul.
“More than 50 people have died already. If Washington or New York were attacked like this, would you sit still, Mr. President? Oh, I guess you don’t care because it’s not reported.”
He had the audacity to lie to the American president.
“An official apology? I doubt our people will be satisfied with that. What did you say? There will be an apology broadcast by the secretary-general soon?”
The atmosphere in the conference room eased up.
If Kim Jong-un really apologized officially, they could not be too harsh on him.
The response would depend on the follow-up measures, but the general consensus was that the northward advance was off the table.
President Jo Hyung-geun listened to something for a while, then frowned and slammed down the phone.
“Do you expect me to believe that some frontline unit acted impulsively?”
“Mr. President, maybe we should wait and see if that’s true.”
The staff’s opinion was also to wait for the apology broadcast.
No one liked war.
But there was someone in this room who needed war, even if he didn’t like it.
He secretly sent a signal, and the reconnaissance pod that was waiting in the sky above Pyongyang fired a directional EMP shock wave at the Korean Central TV building.
As most of the devices were paralyzed, the Korean broadcasters naturally could not receive the video.
“…”
President Jo Hyung-geun, who had been silently waiting for the video, turned red with anger.
“These bastards are lying to us?”
“Mr. President, there must be some misunderstanding…”
No matter how crazy North Korea was, they wouldn’t break their promise with the US in such a critical situation.
But then new news came in.
“Mr. President! In Hwanghae Province, that is, from the 2nd Front Army Corps, 300mm rocket launchers have escaped from the tunnel!”
“We detected movement of North Korean TELs from Baekdu Reconnaissance!”
TELs were short for mobile missile launchers, which usually carried conventional warheads, but in North Korea they were 100% nuclear warheads.
Their movement meant a sign of nuclear attack.
President Jo Hyung-geun agonized and agonized for a short time.
North Korea had clearly revealed its intention to start a war.
If he hesitated here, only Korea’s damage would increase.
He recalled the conversation he had with Yu Ji-ha a while ago.
At that time, Yu Ji-ha said he was afraid of war, but he also said this:
“Of course, our politicians have a duty to do their best to prevent war from happening. But if it’s inevitable… it would be better if it only happened once.”
To Jo Hyung-geun’s mind, that once was now.
“The Joint Chiefs of Staff are connected to Gyeryongdae.”
The faces of dozens of tense generals appeared on the monitor.
He consulted with the heads of each branch of service, including the minister, and heard their opinion that North Korea’s intention to start a war was certain.
They couldn’t sit back and take it again, so the only answer was a preemptive strike.
He would get approval from the National Assembly later.
He gave an order to Lee Kang-hoon, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We don’t need or want an apology from North Korea. Immediately issue DEFCON 2 and combat readiness posture to all forces.”
“All forces DEFCON 2, combat readiness posture issued”
“This is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill.”
On the morning of the 11th, an emergency was declared for the entire Republic of Korea Army.
It was not a drill that was usually replaced by cards, but a real battle.
The soldiers cursed as they put on their uniforms and trucks filled with transport troops gathered in the barracks.
During training, various situations were usually given, but there was none of that in real combat.
There was only one instruction from above: leave your unit and gather at your assembly point.
The officers who controlled the running soldiers were also bewildered.
“Is this really a war or what?”
“Seoul was attacked, we have to do something!”
“This doesn’t seem like it’s going to end easily…”
There had been no activation of DEFCON 2 since the Panmunjom axe murder incident.
And that too for all forces.
The officers hoped they could return to their units as they got into their vehicles.
But seeing the ammunition officer emptying out the ammunition depot with a grim face, it seemed different this time.
“Ammunition officer! Did you hear any instructions from above?”
A captain who couldn’t stand it asked, and the corporal shook his head.
“All I was told was to empty the ammo depot.”
“Really?”
He thought it would be a huge hassle to refill it later, but before that, a sinister thought crossed his mind.
Maybe this order was given because there was no chance of coming back?
This thought was shared by all the officers who felt that the readiness posture was not being lifted.
Each unit retreated to the rear assembly point, occupied it, and waited for orders from above.
Until then, there was no shelling from North Korea.
Normally, when war broke out, the GP and GOP would evaporate under North Korea’s massive shelling, and the front-line units would suffer heavy damage.
The reason for packing up and moving the entire unit was to avoid that shelling.
But what did it mean that they didn’t fire a single shot?
“I heard they ran out of fuel for their self-propelled guns.”
“But don’t you think they can move their front army corps?”
“I don’t know. The GP guys say that these days, even in the front army corps, there are hundreds of deserters. It’s not on the news, though.”
“Then how can they maintain their units…”
North Korea had recently deteriorated to the point where it was doubtful how they could maintain their military.
There used to be a joke that if North Korea invaded the south, they would raid gas stations for fuel and supermarkets for food supplies.
But now North Korea didn’t even have enough fuel to carry out such an operation.
How desperate were they to sell off the fuel they had for wartime use?
There were rumors that the top brass knew this but couldn’t do anything about it and left it alone.
It was no wonder they directly asked the South Korean government for food aid.
Anyway, the South Korean military quickly finished their combat readiness posture.
The air force, navy, and other units also went into base defense, and so did the special forces.
The South Korean military was full of all kinds of lies and excuses, but this readiness posture was very fast.
It was because they had been repeating this for months.
Among the soldiers, there was a saying that they were the worst since 6.25.
They couldn’t sleep and walked around in situations and did mobility training, so they couldn’t help but get annoyed.
Anyway, the combat readiness was over.
There were some minor accidents during this process, such as soldiers disappearing or supplies evaporating, but each unit was ready to move and held their positions.
Until then, North Korea was quiet.
“What’s going on? Is this it?”
When someone said that, President Jo Hyung-geun was meeting with lawmakers, including the speaker of the National Assembly.
…
A group of politicians gathered in the bunker of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Speaker of the National Assembly Park Sun-ho came with the senior members and clashed with President Jo Hyung-geun.
“We absolutely, absolutely cannot have a war.”
“Even when shells are falling on Seoul and the Blue House is collapsing, you say we can’t?”
“There aren’t that many casualties. And it’s only the Chunghoo Hall that collapsed in the Blue House.”
“Chunghoo Hall is part of the Blue House, isn’t it!”
“Don’t raise your voice… Mr. President, you are taking war too lightly. North Korea has nothing to lose, but we have too much.”
“Do you know how much GDP we will lose if the Second Korean War breaks out? Can you handle that?”
“You seem to think that if we send out the 7th Corps to advance northward, we can have dinner in Pyongyang, but North Korea has nukes, you know.”
“In the worst case scenario, if they fire 10 missiles at Seoul, there will be millions of casualties. Will you take responsibility for that?”
President Jo Hyung-geun was furious at the onslaught of the senior members of both parties.
“Now is our only chance! This is the only time in the history of the Korean Peninsula that we can achieve unification without foreign intervention! You know how China is! And what about the US and Japan!”
Speaker Park Sun-ho, who was second in line for succession, plugged his ears and then said.
“Still, we can’t have a war. Do you understand? If you stay like this until dawn, send your troops back to their original positions.”
“Let’s wait and see how North Korea responds.”
“I’m going crazy.”
It was hard to have a war when the National Assembly came out so strongly.
President Jo Hyung-geun was frustrated and tried to bring up the NCM bomb.
“Mr. President. Can I talk to you for a moment?”
They went to a corner and talked surrounded by bodyguards.
“You must never mention that.”
The more ears there were, the more likely it was to leak out, which was a truth.
If he revealed the existence of the NCM bomb, the US would intervene immediately and stop the war.
“If I want to get approval from the National Assembly, I have no choice.”
Since Korea and North Korea were in a state of armistice, there was no need for a declaration of war.
But advancing northward was a different dimension.
Even if he issued DEFCON 2 and entered readiness posture, he had to have at least some tacit consent.
He couldn’t ignore the National Assembly, which represented the people, when he put 50 million people in a wartime situation.
This was ultimately Jo Hyung-geun’s concern that he couldn’t escape from being a Korean politician.
Yu Ji-ha was not originally Korean, nor did he think of himself as Korean.
He pretended to be one when he first got out of his vegetative state because he had nothing, but now he didn’t need to.
He could send 8 billion people to war if he had to, not just 50 million.
“Just wait a little longer.”
“Did something happen?”
“Well, how would I know? I’m not a prophet.”
President Jo Hyung-geun was frustrated by his vague words.
“Nuclear missiles could fly at us any time and I don’t understand why they won’t approve it!”
Well, it was more of a problem that Jo Hyung-geun’s heart couldn’t order an advance northward even in such a situation.
His heart was screaming for an advance northward, but he felt burdened because he was in a position to make decisions.
He could ignore the National Assembly and order an advance northward, but he would be responsible for everything that happened afterwards.
It would be fine if he won without much damage.
But if he failed to intercept nuclear missiles or suffered mass civilian casualties from chemical attacks, it would all be his fault.
Then he would be criticized for not having avoided war.
Yu Ji-ha looked at him with pity.
‘I set up everything for you, but you can’t even pull the trigger.’
North Korea was in chaos after being hit by an EMP attack, so they had neither the ability nor the will to attack South Korea.
‘I wanted to kill them during the war if possible…’
Their resistance to the Second Korean War was stronger than Arma’s prediction.
Well, he understood since they didn’t know how many people would die.
Yu Ji-ha ordered him who was insensitive to death.
“Blow up about 10 places including the Blue House, National Assembly Building, and Ministry of National Defense.”
“Understood”
When North Korea’s front army corps was in chaos, androids came out of Ford and infiltrated them.
They killed the military officers who were actually commanding the units and disguised themselves as them, and took over the intact rocket launchers.
South Korea’s reconnaissance assets detected a series of movements and sounded an alarm.
And thousands of rocket launchers fired at Seoul.