1953 Bare-handed Tycoon - Chapter 354



Only Noblemtl

354 – On the way to get scolded

On December 21, Im Hwa-su, Kwak Yeong-ju, and Choi In-gyu were executed.

On that day, each death row inmate had mixed feelings.

Hong Jin-gi, the Minister of Home Affairs who was sentenced to death for shooting during the April 19 Revolution, was not executed.

The one who fired in front of the Blue House was Kwak Young-ju.

Even though the court ruled that Hong Jin-gi was responsible for the shooting in Seoul, he survived.

It was the same treatment as those involved in the Masan Uprising being sentenced to life imprisonment.

The theory that Hong Jin-gi was able to survive because he was surrounded by judges and elites from Gyeongseong Imperial University (Seoul National University) seemed credible.

But there was one notable change.

Unlike the original history, the execution of Cho Yong-su of Minjok Ilbo was not carried out.

This seemed to be influenced by the fact that Chairman Park’s tour of Japan and the United States drew keen interest from foreign media in whether Cho Yong-su would be executed.

I thought that Chairman Park was changing little by little.

It was a positive thing.

The keynote speaker covered the newspaper and briefly prayed for the repose of Kwak Young-joo’s soul.

It was lunchtime and I was preparing to eat with my office colleagues when I got a phone call.

It was a call from the Supreme Council Chairman’s office.

-The chairman asks if you have had lunch.

I thought the keynote was a call to come for lunch, so I replied that I would come right away.

Kijo left the representative office and walked to the Supreme Council building, saying he would eat lunch outside.

6 minute walk to Chairman Park’s office.

I just had to walk about 600 steps.

Kijo thought that Chairman Park would scold him for using a paper badge while walking down the street to meet Kwak Young-joo.

He used the paper badge twice on Kwak Young-joo, who had embarrassed Chairman Park and blocked his path to promotion.

It couldn’t have looked good since he met him once and even let his family meet him the next day.

The paper badge wasn’t made for that purpose.

You will be warned by Chairman Park and asked why you did that.

But, thinking that it was something worth enduring, Kijo calmly moved forward.

Arriving in front of the chairman’s office, Kijo knocked on the door.

-Come in.

When I opened the door, Chairman Park was sitting on the sofa, smiling broadly.

“Come on in. I’ll make udon.”

On the table in front of the sofa were two bowls of 100-won udon noodles.

Kijo ate udon with Chairman Park using plastic chopsticks.

Since it was cheap udon, there were only six pieces of yellow radish, so I had to eat it sparingly.

As Chairman Park emptied the soup, Kijo also picked up his bowl and drank from it.

After a simple meal, Chairman Park took out an Arirang cigarette and lit one.

When Kijo took out Arirang cigarettes, Chairman Park snickered.

“You have a lot of money, so why don’t you smoke?”

“Arirang is more delicious.”

“It’s delicious, but the green onion tastes better.”

“If you only smoke delicious cigarettes, you will eventually end up smoking foreign cigarettes. You have to stop at a moderate level.”

Chairman Park smiled faintly at the keynote speech.

The two smoked cigarettes in a room that was too shabby and undecorated to be called the Supreme Council Chairman’s office.

Kijo laughed when he saw the black cat statue on Chairman Park’s desk.

It was a gift I received from Secretary of Commerce Hodges during my visit to the United States.

“Do you still pet cats a lot these days?”

“Oh, that?”

Chairman Park glanced at the cat statue and said.

“I pet it hard every day. I’m afraid the reporters will curse at me… But I guess it doesn’t work well in Korea because it’s an American cat. I think Korean reporters still hate me.”

Kijo and Chairman Park laughed heartily.

Chairman Park, who had stopped laughing, tried to clear the bowl of udon with his own hands.

When the keynote speaker said he would do it, he said, “Leave it,” opened the door himself, and handed the empty bowls to the secretaries.

The keynote speaker was fond of Chairman Park’s easygoing attitude.

His greatest charm was his frugality and simplicity.

The keynote speech was that it was hoped that Chairman Park would maintain his easygoing attitude and think of the country more than power for a long time.

When I think back to his later years, I can see that he was even beautiful now.

Chairman Park, who had cleared away the bowl of udon, sat back down on the sofa and lit a new cigarette.

It felt like Chairman Park wanted to talk about the Kwak Young-joo case but was holding back, so Ki-jo spoke first.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman.”

As the keynote speaker spoke, Chairman Park blew out a puff of cigarette smoke and smiled faintly.

“What are you talking about after eating delicious udon together?”

It seemed like Chairman Park had called him to have lunch because he wanted to show him not to worry about ‘that problem.’

As for the Kwak Young-joo case, it seemed like it was over and I didn’t say anything else.

Chairman Park put out his cigarette in the ashtray and said.

“You need to help KBS out a bit.”

“Are you talking about KBS-TV?”

“Yes, we’re going to do a test broadcast starting on the 24th, but there are still a lot of things lacking. When I went to inspect it, it seemed like people were confused and didn’t know what to do yet.”

The keynote speaker nodded.

KBS-TV broadcasting station began construction on October 10th and was completed in just two months.

According to CEO Lee Man-ik, the building was made of concrete, but as the weather got colder, they were worried that the concrete would freeze, so they sprinkled salt on it and built it like a military operation.

Kijo remembered the anecdote that whenever it rained, water would drip from the KBS studio ceiling.

“But doesn’t DBC have several years of broadcasting experience? They use two cameras in the studio, right? KBS only uses one.”

“We will dispatch DBC engineers to KBS.”

“Yes, thank you. The machine is also RCA, the same as DBC, so the map won’t be difficult. The machine also came from the US ten days ago. No one was confident in handling it.”

“Maybe they did that because the machine was so expensive that they were afraid it would break down.”

The keynote speech defended KBS employees.

“Please.”

“Yes, Mr. Chairman.”

“Oh, and by the way… … .”

Chairman Park brought up the broadcasting station story further.

“How can a TV show become popular in a short period of time?”

Chairman Park was very interested in the media.

It seemed that he had concluded that it was the mass media called radio that had completed his imperfect ‘revolution’.

On that dawn when everything was uncertain, when they announced on the radio that “the revolution was successful,” everyone in the country believed it.

I had a vague thought that Chairman Park might have wanted to promote TV, which is more powerful than radio, to show his face and promote his regime.

The keynote speech was that even if Chairman Park had such intentions, KBS had to succeed in order to grow the TV industry.

“How about doing a test broadcast for about a week and then showing the movie for about two weeks starting in the new year?”

“movie?”

“Yes, I found out while running DBC that the most satisfying thing for viewers was movies. They really liked being able to watch movies for free at home. And they were very proud to invite their acquaintances and neighbors to their homes and show them movies on TV.”

“It’s a movie… … .”

Chairman Park nodded, touching his chin.

“They’re showing the movie every day for two weeks… That sounds like a good idea.”

Chairman Park made a brief note on the notepad in front of the table.

Then Chairman Park said to Kijo.

“When we were in the US, we asked the Broadcast Culture Association to accept applications for TV sets, and they said they received a total of 11,000 applications.”

Chairman Park seemed to feel that it was quite a large quantity.

But Keynote knew that demand was potentially more than twice that.

“So, I think we’ll accept 10,000 more units in the second round.”

“I think that is a good decision.”

“Is that so? Are you saying that you think there are more people who would buy TVs?”

“Yes, if only the price could be lowered to under 100,000 won, a significant number of people would be willing to bring a TV into their homes.”

“Haha, if it’s under 100,000 won, it’ll sell well. According to what I’ve heard, the cheapest TV was 128,800 won. That was when they imported Japanese TVs. RCA products were 256,900 won.”

Chairman Park was trying to distribute TVs to the public through 12-month installments.

The government directly purchased TVs and sold them to the public.

Just like applying for an apartment, we received applications to purchase a TV set.

But this was showing tremendous heat.

The keynote speech was known to be so popular that it could be called a TV craze when the second round of applications is accepted next year.

To apply for a TV set from the government, you had to buy a 100-won application form, but even if you bought the form and applied, there was no guarantee that you would be selected.

However, people flocked to apply for apartments as if they were rushing to buy them during a real estate boom.

As citizens came to buy TV installment application forms, they flocked to the Korea Broadcasting Culture Association and the KBS broadcasting station in Jeongdong on Taepyeong-ro 1-ga, and the line stretched like dominoes outside the buildings, so much so that the police had to be dispatched to maintain order.

“But you know, it’s a bit of a shame to import and sell TVs. There’s going to be a lot of foreign currency outflow, so what can we do?”

Kijo was promoting a joint venture TV factory project with Sanyo Electric.

However, Sanyo Electric President Toshio Iue was somewhat reluctant to push ahead with the project, fearing that domestic demand would be low.

I thought it would be good to link the keynote with Chairman Park’s policies.

“How about suggesting that companies that supply TVs to the government must build TV factories in Korea?”

“TV factory?”

“Yes, they are saying that they will give extra points in the bid if we build a joint venture factory with a domestic company.”

“Hmm… Since it’s a joint venture, if we set up a factory in Korea, it would be an opportunity to acquire TV technology.”

“Yes, if you plan to distribute TVs to all citizens, it would be a good idea to lower tariffs on imported parts or even provide tax exemptions.”

“If we lower the tariffs, national tax revenue will decrease….”

“First of all, in order to establish the electronics industry in Korea, we need benefits in the beginning. In the long run, think of it as laying the foundation for exporting domestically produced TVs overseas and earning foreign currency.”

“Is it possible for TVs made in Korea to be exported?”

“Yes, but initially, you should implement export incentives in the form of bonded processing.”

The keynote speaker believed that while his own business was a business, he also believed that bonded processing trade was necessary for the development of Korea’s electronics industry.

“Does bonded processing mean importing parts duty-free, manufacturing products, and exporting them as is?”

“Yes, Hong Kong earns foreign currency in that way. Hong Kong does it, so there is no reason why our country cannot do it. However, in the beginning, we have to give up national tax revenue, but companies can earn foreign currency and increase Korea’s foreign exchange reserves, and we can meet our tax revenue with corporate tax. There are many advantages in many ways.”

“okay….”

Chairman Park slyly wrote down the Chinese characters for bonded processing on a memo.

The handwriting was good.

“We should also talk about the radio distribution business. We plan to distribute 200,000 units to rural areas. Should we also process this through bonded processing like the TV business?”

“Of course. Radios have a higher export potential than TVs. If we make low-cost radios in Korea, we can lower the price by two-thirds or even half of the price of Japanese products.”

“Is that all?”

Chairman Park’s eyes widened.

“Yes, it is competitive enough.”

Chairman Park nodded and asked.

“Are you doing Cheongsando Radio? How many units can you supply to the government right now?”

“We have 40,000 units in stock.”

“Forty thousand?”

Chairman Park was surprised.

Kijo had been operating the radio factory at full capacity since the production of the first radio in 1962, with the radio distribution business in mind.

“Rakhee said there wasn’t much stock. But you made a lot….”

“Because we had to order parts in bulk from Japan to lower the price a little.”

Chairman Park opened his mouth after a moment of silence, looking as if he understood.

“Since the government is short on money right now, we are thinking of giving a refund of some of the money for purchasing radios this year or exempting them from taxes in the future. Would you cooperate?”

The keynote was more than happy to do so.

Then I asked Chairman Park a question.

“Cheongsan currently has a stock of TVs from various companies, including RCA. I don’t know if I can supply them to the government or sell them separately. There is no problem with the quality, but they are from the 50s, so they are a bit lacking.”

“You can take care of that yourself.”

“All right.”

After finishing his conversation with Chairman Park, Kijo returned to headquarters and called Seo Gwang to inspect the TV inventory.

Seo Gwang investigated and brought all the remaining stock of cheap American TVs and RCA products from Dongdaemun Market.

“Sir, why aren’t the TVs selling…?”

Kijo smiled and said in response to Seogwang’s question.

“I think the 258 TVs will sell like hotcakes soon.”

“Yes? Is that true?”

Seo-kwang asked how that was possible.

“Just wait a little longer. Sooner or later, a selling opportunity will open up.”

Kijo smiled brightly at Seo-kwang.