Dear Comrade Leader, Episode 243
Ri Kyung-soo didn’t say anything to the sudden humanities lecture, but he turned his head and fixed his gaze on Jeong-hwan, who was wandering around the room.
However, the flame that was burning in the eyes embedded in the center of Ri Kyung-soo’s face has now disappeared somewhere, leaving only an empty void.
But Jeonghwan didn’t care and continued to say what he had to say.
“Independence fighters during the Japanese colonial period, Che Guevara, Benigno Aquino, and even Yu Min-jung. These people are the kind of people who cannot be concocted by material or status. Even in extreme torture, even in situations where not only his own life but also his family are threatened, he never breaks his faith. If you hear this analogy, there will be a lot of people who will run rampant on the road, but if you look closely, Osama bin Laden is also like that. It is not something the average person can do to forsake an enormous legacy and a promised future and throw himself into a religious cause and a self-proclaimed crusade.”
“… … .”
Ri Kyungsoo didn’t say anything and just listened to what Jeonghwan had to say.
In fact, Junghwan also seemed to be talking to himself or someone who wasn’t here rather than talking to Ri Kyungsoo.
Come to think of it, his eyes also seemed to be looking away from Ri Kyung-soo in front of him and looking somewhere in time and space other than this room.
“What a tough adversary to a dictator like me. If so, what do you think is the case for breaking down or converting these people? By the way, if you die by physical methods, commonly thought of as torture or assassination, it is rather counterproductive. Not only are they not humans who fear death in the first place, but they also make them martyrs.”
“… … What is it?”
“It is only when your beliefs are broken. In particular, betrayal by a trusted comrade or close associate is the most common. During the Japanese colonial period, the main enemy who tormented the independence fighters the most was not the Japanese Empire, but the opportunists or traitors attached to it. In my opinion, the current comrade… … That seems to be the case.”
“… … ?”
“As I said last time and now again, unlike opportunists who change sides at any time for material gain or the preservation of their own lives, people who live with faith like comrades are very scarce human resources in any organization. Regardless of the faction. The problem is that it is difficult to isolate and difficult to convert, but it is also not impossible.”
Recognizing the meaning of those words, Ri Kyung-soo looked at him blankly for a moment, then asked again.
“At the end of the day, you are telling me to turn around. In the end, it is.”
“In summary, yes. It was not intentional, but the doors of the Labor Party are always wide open to anyone. Especially if you are someone like a comrade who learns well and has enough motivation to hate dissidents.”
“… … .”
Lee Kyung-soo did not say anything for a long time this time as well.
Jeonghwan also kept his mouth shut and just watched Ri Kyungsoo, waiting for his answer.
After how much time passed, Ri Kyung-soo’s mouth, which had finally been covered with scabs, slowly opened.
“Looking at the comrades who were converted at Kwanliso No. 23, I was constantly thinking all night, wondering why the comrades who had thrown themselves into the struggle like that would easily turn to the opposite side so easily. No matter how much I think about it, there is only one answer.”
“… … What is it?”
“Pride… … I guess To put it in a more difficult language, it is a sense of choice, and in the US, it is Ego. They brainwashed themselves that they were loyal to the system from the beginning because they absolutely did not want to admit, no, could not admit that beings smarter and different than other peoples like themselves had bent their beliefs in a reward as small as dust. It will.”
“… … .”
“Because he couldn’t change his ego, he ended up changing his entire self… … . Isn’t that really funny? Looking at it this way, it wasn’t the Kwanliso or the General Secretary who converted those comrades. They are themselves.”
After saying that, Ri Kyung-soo moved his gaze to meet Jung-hwan’s eyes.
His eyes were swollen and still full of despair and failure, but Jung Hwan-man found a new will to live sprouting from the depths of those eyes.
“Although other people may seem to have made the same decision as them in the end, at least I don’t want to deceive myself. I have no intention of forcing myself to do something wrong. Admit it, I’ve been against the general secretary system, but I’ve been wrong. So I’m going to move on.”
“It’s the right choice. So I have a lot of work to do from now on.”
In response to Ri Kyung-soo’s short answer, Jeonghwan jumped up energetically from his seat as if he knew it would, and handed him some papers that had been prepared nearby.
“… … What is this?”
“Application for Exchange Student Program at Harvard University, USA. I signed an exchange student agreement with Kim Il-sung University a few years ago, so if you bring a letter of recommendation issued by the clerk’s office with your name in it, you will be able to enter without difficulty. My academic grades were good, but I don’t want to go to Kim University anymore, so go and cool off and finish your studies. If you want, take an MBA course, and if you are more greedy, go ahead and build a career at McKinsey or Goldman Sachs.”
“… … .”
“And most importantly, when you finish building all of these careers, there will be a place for a comrade at the Party Central Party School. The domestic practical experience is … … It is recommended that the Ministry of Public Security build it. All expenses will be borne by the party. But before that, there is one condition. That condition is the back paper.”
At the general secretary’s words, Kyungsoo Ri played with his fingers and unfolded the paper behind the exchange student application.
When he saw the words ‘Declaration of conscience’, Kyungsoo Ri’s feelings were surprisingly calm.
It was something I was prepared for from the moment I made the choice.
“As I said, I am also in a position to lead the organization. No matter how much I am the general secretary, I have to do this kind of formality so that there is no criticism from within the party that a person who was a dissident until recently is so pretty that he collects the people’s money to raise him.”
For a moment, Ri Kyung-soo was just staring at the blank paper and the pencil he had picked up.
As if he couldn’t believe what he was doing right now, that he had chosen this situation in front of him with his own hands.
But for a while, he quickly began to fill out the declaration of conscience, one word at a time, with his eyes shining.
It’s like writing a ‘reflection letter’ that was not written at the management office at once.
Looking down at the scene, Jeonghwan smirked rarely.
“As a faithful Labor Party member, you have a very good attitude from the start.”
* * *
“I… … Can Comrade Ri Kyung-su overcome the internal competition of the Central Party School? I’ve heard that the competition is very fierce, from the most prestigious families in the country to the top elites of the republic from the bottom up, and even comrades who immigrated from south Korea. Among them, there are quite a few executives who have already jumped into the front lines of party affairs and are achieving extraordinary results… … .”
“Whatever it is, it is up to you. I’m just going to collect all those friends one by one and put them in. It all depends on one’s own abilities, I only make the final choice. If I intervene from one to ten, is it hereditary and what is the difference?”
It was Jung-hwan’s answer to Yoo Hye-rim’s question, who watched the joint conversion declaration of the 23 prisoners including Professor Kim Il-cheol in the secretary’s office being broadcast live on the Chosun Central Broadcasting System.
In the midst of flashes of cameras on the TV screen, the prisoners who finally appeared in front of the public said, “They have misunderstood the truth of the Party and the general secretary, and have disrupted the social order of the republic and deceived the people. I was reading a declaration saying, ‘I will make an all-out effort for development’.
The expressions of the foreign reporters who looked at the scene with a microphone and a PDA in their hands, respectively, were a mixture of astonishment and chaos.
And among them, Lee Kyung-soo’s declaration of conversion, no, his declaration of conscience caught the public’s attention the most.
-As a former representative of the Hakchongryon and the first executive, I would like to expose the lies and hypocrisy of the Hakchongryon here today… … .
– The ‘Assault and Murder Case of Hakchongryon Representative Ri Kyung-soo’ by the public security authorities that was spread to foreign media by the Hakchongryon side a few months ago is not true. As you can see, I solemnly declare that I am alive in this place and that I am not making this declaration by anyone’s oppression or coercion.
-In the correctional facility where I was imprisoned, there was no inhuman assault or torture unlike rumors known from the outside, and the treatment of inmates inside was far from infringing on human rights, unlike being misled by foreign media. . Rather, it is the Hak Chongryon that is making false accusations for the purpose of agitation against the party, the state, and above all, the people.
-As a republican intellectual with a conscience and common sense, I have to warn against these Hakchongryun and the forces associated with it. This led to the establishment and execution of a series of deceptive conspiracies to attack public security officers who were controlling the protests and exaggerate this to the foreign media.
-I, too, as a member of their group, actively supported this conspiracy at one time, but I did not win over the voices of my inner conscience and my family around me, and I came to this declaration of conscience. I bow my head to apologize to the party and general secretary for my past mistakes and mistakes, and I swear here that I will spend the rest of my life serving the republic and the people solely in order to wash away these sins. I also want to convey these words to the other still young and naive comrades who have joined the Hakchongryon side. It’s not too late to come back yet, so even now, put everything down and return to the party’s arms… … .
“How many people will believe that? Aren’t there a lot more people who think that our party just tortured those comrades so badly that they forced them to say things like that?”
“About half? Well, if the comrades released from there actively and voluntarily prove their conversion and show regret for their past actions, then the people of overseas will be convinced that almost all of those declarations were true.”
Unlike Yoo Hye-rim, who was worried like this, Jeong-hwan, who watched TV with his chin resting comfortably, had an optimistic attitude.
And in fact, this prediction of Jung-hwan turned out to be true later, and the prisoners who were converted from Kwanliso 23 became loyal to the system so fierce that even the word “active” would not be enough in the future.
As if to make up for their betrayal, these converts, who became more fierce than those who were originally loyal to the ‘moderate’ system, and this series of marrow worshipers of Kim Jung-hwan, who spread out in all fields from academia, media, and art circles, It is called ‘New Left’ in reference to a similar political force in Korea, but that was another story.
The most dramatic thing in today’s joint conversion ceremony was the appearance of Ri Kyung-soo, who was known to have been arrested or killed by the police, and his shocking declaration of change.
A South Korean reporter, who was watching the whole process from start to finish at the declaration site that day, described the shock experienced by the North Koreans and those demanding democracy in this article.
-This is a day worthy of being recorded in the textbook of modern and contemporary history of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. If we assume that in the 1980s, at the height of the protests, the dead Park Jong-cheol or Lee Han-yeol, who died at the time, appeared alive and defended the new military and criticized the democratization forces. .
“Lee Kyung-soo, you filthy renegade Jongganna bastard! He was obsessed with the system, betrayed his comrades, and pursued the achievement of one’s self by himself.
Of course, the Hakchon-ryon was outraged and declared that the declarations of Ri Kyung-soo and Kim Il-cheol were false and that they were manipulated by the pressure of the Party and the Ministry of Public Security.
They broke into Ri Kyung-soo wherever he went, swearing at him and accusing him of being a traitor and traitor.
It was already too late for Hak Chong Ryeon, and apart from the question of what kind of location the 23 Kwanliso actually is from the point of view of the general public, the fact that people who were already known to have died come back alive raises questions about the credibility of all the words and actions of Hak Chong Ryeon. It was enough.
Right now, even Ri Kyung-soo was the most active person since the founding of Hakchong-ryon, and even after he died (known to have been) by the public security, it was not the Hakchong-ryon who threw stones at the tyranny of the Kim Jeong-hwan system with his death in the forefront.
However, since Ri Kyung-soo returned to his normal life, it was obvious that the political driving force of the Hak Chongryon would be greatly reduced.
And now, all that remains is to deliver the final blow to Jeong-hwan and the Workers’ Party of Korea.
It could be done at any time in the meantime, but it was just the final blow waiting for the optimal time to come.
“Now that I have turned to the cause of the witness and even the hearts of the people, there is no need to hesitate any longer. order with the authority of the general secretary. Dissolve the Hak Chongryon for attempted assault and blackmail against the representatives of the public authorities and arrest the masterminds.”
And the school was destroyed.
In fact, the Hakchongryon, which made continuous mistakes and made the majority of the people of the republic only have the perception of ‘noisy social chaos and a decrease in growth rate or the nonsense of reactionaries that cause a decrease in the growth rate’ of democracy, is in fact on the way down to such a degree that it can be destroyed at any time if there is an opportunity. was approaching
And when such an opportunity was given, the Korean Socialist Student Federation, which had arisen under the cause of finally bringing democracy and freedom to the republic, was disbanded just over a year after its establishment.
The chairman and part of the delegation were arrested, some of the remaining members of the party fled to foreign countries such as Korea, and the rest were grinding their teeth and distributing underground newspapers such as ‘The words of Ri Kyung-soo and other converts are false rumors created by torture and bribery’. He hid in the basement and waited for the day of his recovery.
In fact, the people of the Republic did not believe all the testimonies of Ri Kyung-su and others about the infamous (?) of Kwanliso No. 23 (this was largely because the terrifying impression of the correctional center built by Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung in the previous era was still vivid). There were not enough supporters to maintain a reputation in the .
But to their despair (and as Jung-hwan had already calculated), the shock that would completely crush these shards that had been broken right after the dissolution of the Hakchongryon to powder came from the United States across the Pacific at the beginning of the following year.
A new symbol of selfishness achieved by modern high-tech civilization, a superstar of consumer culture that makes the people of the Republic focus not on freedom or human rights but on the peripheral happiness of earning and spending money brought about by the market economy system. This was what appeared.
-Today, Apple is going to ‘reinvent’ the phone.
On January 8, 2007, in the hands of a white man in a black turtleneck, the gray plastic plate was named iPhone.
Rather than the poorly printed underground newspapers of former Hakchongryon members who were driven out of the sun with all sorts of stigma such as outdated garbage, liars, and people who will ruin the economy, this new and amazing device has a greater number of people of the Republic. It was no wonder they were much more concerned.
