1953 Bare-handed Tycoon - Chapter 375



Only Noblemtl

375 – New Country Automobile

A few days after the currency reform was implemented.

Kijo rode a truck with Ma-ryang and Seo-gwang and headed to Incheon Port.

It had been a long time since the three of them had ridden in a truck together.

“Riding this far away in a truck with you, sir, brings back old memories.”

Seo Gwang, sitting in the middle, said.

“Back then, even if I had just one truck, it felt like I had the world. That blue truck is still vivid in my mind. Don’t you think so, Ma-ryang?”

He smiled vaguely, as if he was recalling the days when he used to transport bricks in a few trucks and teach driving lessons in Yeoncheon.

Seo Kwang spoke to the driver.

“In 1954. I remember riding the train with the president to Incheon to buy land full of coal. When we left Eundae-ri that day, the fog was so thick that you couldn’t see an inch ahead of you. Do you remember that fog?”

“I remember.”

The keynote speech also smiled.

It was a time when the future was uncertain, like the fog that filled the countryside.

I never imagined that it would become such a huge success.

The keynote was that it was nice to be able to share memories with people close to me.

The large amount of coal buried in Incheon’s land was now gone. Gijo was planning to fill the empty land with dirt and use it as factory land in the future.

The reason Gijo took Seo-gwang and Ma-ryang to Incheon Port was to receive automobile parts imported from Japan.

The revolutionary government passed the on May 21.

It was a law that allowed duty-free imports of equipment and parts for automobile production.

As soon as the law was passed, Kijo asked Japan expert Cho Joong-hoon to import four cars from Japan for research purposes.

Research vehicles for automobile production were duty-free, but they were not given official license plates and could not be driven for personal or commercial purposes.

One of them entered Incheon Port first.

After importing the four cars, Kijo invited technicians from Japan to disassemble and assemble the cars, allowing Kia to acquire automobile assembly technology.

There was a problem when trying to pick up the car that was stored at customs upon arrival at Incheon Port.

When I opened the large box with a fork, the car that should have been inside was gone and it was empty.

“No! What is this! Where did the car go!”

Seo Kwang was so excited that he almost grabbed the customs officer by the collar.

The price of the car purchased in Japan amounted to 130,000 won in Korean currency.

“It’s strange. I clearly heard it… … .”

The customs officer looked through the ledgers in a state of great confusion.

“You didn’t steal it? Do you think the car would have gone off on its own?”

Seo-kwang finally grabbed the customs officer by the collar.

Ma-ryang was also glaring at the customs officer with his eyes bright with anger.

The customs officer who was grabbed by the collar was taken aback for a moment, then came to his senses and asked Seo-gwang.

“Now, wait a minute. Let go of this!”

Kijo stopped Seo-kwang, who was holding the opponent by the collar, and let him go.

The customs officer called other employees to find out what had happened.

And soon he found a clue and explained it to the keynote speaker.

“Sir, are you sure you imported the Nissan Bluebird 311 from Japan?”

“you’re right.”

“Ah… So that’s what happened. I get it now.”

“What did you know?”

Ma Liang asked with a still angry expression.

“There is a company that took the exact same car in the morning. There is a company that has been teaching the same car model in large quantities.”

The situation was understood while listening to the explanation from the person in charge.

“Is this a new car?”

“Yes! That’s right. Saenara Motors! I picked up a car there today, and I think they took that car too.”

The customs officer approached the keynote speaker and whispered quietly.

“The intelligence agency people came and took it away. They said they would take it themselves and scared us so much that we couldn’t even come near it.”

The keynote speaker nodded.

“Is the production number of that car recorded at customs?”

“Of course.”

“Of course, a customs clearance number has also been assigned?”

“sure.”

“Please give me a document proving that the car is mine. I will go to Saenara Motors and check it out, and if it’s there, I will take it from there.”

“Okay, I’ll help you.”

The person in charge wrote down his name and phone number and handed the document to Kijo.

“If you have any problems, please contact me again. I will help you.”

“All right.”

Kijo received the documents, loaded Seo-gwang and Ma-ryang into the truck, and hurriedly headed to Saenara Motors.

Saenara Motors had secured factory land in Bupyeong, Incheon.

Before the factory was built, cars were imported from Japan and supplied to the government.

The government announced at the end of April that it expected a large number of foreign guests to visit Korea for the May 16 Memorial Day event, and that it would import 500 Japanese cars for tourist purposes to welcome foreign guests. Saenara was put in charge of the project.

The keynote speech arrived in front of the Saenara Automobile factory in Bupyeong.

The place where Saenara Motors was established later became the Shinjin Motors factory, which was acquired by Daewoo and eventually became GM Korea’s Bupyeong factory.

Kijo got out of the truck, explained the situation to the factory security guard, and asked him to call the person in charge.

After a while, the person in charge came out, looked at the documents that Kijo had handed out, and then went back in.

The person in charge who came out after a while spoke to Kijo.

“There is no car here with that customs clearance number. Go to Incheon Port and ask about it.”

At the person in charge’s words, Ma-ryang stepped forward and spoke.

“We checked Incheon Port. We will check for ourselves whether our cars are in your factory, so don’t stop us.”

The person in charge, bewildered by the momentum of the horse, was seen putting his hand into his suit pocket.

The keynote quickly blocked the horse’s path.

“Stop for a moment. I’ll handle it.”

The officer’s hand came out from inside his suit.

The report said he was a CIA agent and was carrying a pistol inside his jacket.

Saenara Motors was a company established in collusion with Korean businessmen in Japan and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Japanese automobiles imported from Japan as state-run tourist vehicles were to be sold as taxis, and the Central Intelligence Agency was to use them as funds for the establishment of the Democratic Republican Party.

The keynote was a polite request to the man who appeared to be a KCIA agent.

“I know Mr. Seok Jeong-seon well. Can I give him a call?”

When the keynote speaker mentioned the name of the second-in-command of the Central Intelligence Agency, the opponent flinched.

“What is your name? What do you do?”

Kijo took a business card out of his wallet and handed it to the man.

The man who looked at the business card said.

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll make the call. If you’re lying, you won’t be safe.”

The man let go of his threatening words and went back into the office.

The man who ended the call came out quickly and bowed to the keynote speaker, apologizing.

“I think our staff made a mistake. Please come in.”

The man had the chain blocking the factory gate removed.

Kijo told Ma-ryang and Seo-gwang to wait in the truck, then went inside with the man.

“I wish you had told me sooner. I’m sorry.”

The man apologized again.

And then he took me to a large empty lot where there were a lot of Nissan Bluebird 311s parked.

The man asked his subordinate to find the car.

The employee arrived in a Nissan Bluebird 311 painted in two-tone lime and beige.

The employee who got out of the car handed over the key, and the man who received the key politely gave it to Kijo.

“We brought all the Nissan cars that came into Incheon Port because we thought they were ours. Please understand.”

“It’s okay. I’ll contact you later and thank you, Manager.”

“Oh, yes. Please explain it to the manager. We didn’t do it on purpose…”

“All right.”

The keynote did not consider it a mistake. It was clear that the agents had ‘neda-bai’ed the car.

*Nedabai (ねたばい) – A slang term from that time meaning a hit and run or a scam.

But Kijo didn’t make a fuss about it any more and just quietly drove out of the factory.

When Kijo drove out in a shiny Japanese car, Seo-gwang raised both hands in joy, and Ma-ryang couldn’t hide his smile as he looked at the new car.

“Sir! Open the bonnet and check if the engine is working properly!”

Ma-ryang said a word to Seo-gwang, who was acting excited.

“The car would have rolled out since the engine was properly attached.”

Still, Kijo opened the car’s hood as Seo-gwang wished.

The 1,000CC gasoline engine was running and making a smooth sound.

“Hey, the engine sounds good! The sound is just like a baby’s breathing! This is what a new car looks like! There’s not a single speck of dust on the engine! Hahaha.”

Kijo was also proud to see the brand new cars just produced in Japan.

After carefully examining the car’s exterior and interior, we headed back to Seoul.

Before departure, Seo-kwang insisted on riding the Bluebird, so Ma-ryang followed Gi-jo in a truck.

Seo Kwang, sitting in the passenger seat, was impressed by the ride quality of the Bluebird 311.

“Sir, this is my first time riding in such a comfortable car. It feels like I’m sitting on a cloud. Hahaha.”

Seo Gwang was amazed as he touched the sparkling interior.

That’s because the Nissan Bluebird had independent suspension.

It offered a superior ride quality that was incomparable to the Jeeps Seogwang had been riding in.

The keynote speech was bitter at the thought that the Central Intelligence Agency would import a large number of the cars he was driving and drive domestic Korean car manufacturers out of business.

The created by the revolutionary government did not protect domestic companies. Rather, it was abused to import Japanese cars duty-free and sell them domestically.

International Automobile Manufacturing, which opened the gateway to domestic automobile production by manufacturing the Shibal automobile, is closing its doors.

The car, which was made by pounding metal drum plates onto an old US military jeep and covering it with a body, could not possibly compete with the high-quality Japanese cars.

As Japanese cars fill the streets, domestic companies are going out of business.

It was one of the side effects caused by Kim Jong-pil in order to secure funds to found the Democratic Republican Party.

The next day, after receiving a temporary driving permit from the police station, Kijo drove Bluebird 311 to Busan.

I met with Kim Chul-ho, the president of Kia Motors, and gave him a car while talking about future plans.

“First, drive this car and check out the strengths and weaknesses of the car with the engineers. Once the third car arrives, a Japanese technician will come and teach you how to disassemble and assemble the car.”

“Understood, sir.”

The keynote speech was that Kim Cheol-ho seemed to feel both a sense of motivation and a sense of burden as he looked at the car he had brought.

“Sir, shouldn’t we focus on the motorcycle before the car…?”

“The car has priority over the motorcycle. Please focus more on the car.”

The keynote speech opposed Kim Chul-ho’s plan to make Kia the number one motorcycle manufacturer in the country.

In the 1960s, people believed that the motorcycle market would become larger than that of cars because cars were much more expensive than motorcycles.

Southeast Asia certainly did.

However, unlike Southeast Asia, Korea, which was growing at an extremely fast rate, quickly entered the My Car era.

By the 1980s, domestic demand for automobiles had surpassed that for motorcycles.

Globally, the automobile market was much larger than the motorcycle market.

Since there is no answer for either motorcycles or automobiles in the domestic market, if you are going to target overseas markets, automobiles are the answer.

In reality, the Korean motorcycle industry also could not avoid a long period of deficit, and just when it seemed that it had finally become technologically independent, it was pushed out by low-priced motorcycles from Southeast Asia and China and high-performance products from Japan, and went bankrupt or was acquired by foreign companies.

Even if the motorcycle industry is fostered and technological capabilities are improved early, production must be done in Southeast Asia, like in Japan, because of price competitiveness.

The motorcycle industry was also ill-suited to creating large numbers of jobs domestically.

Kim Cheol-ho, who examined the car closely, sighed deeply as he confirmed the various parts and precision of the car that could not be compared to a motorcycle.

“Sir, can Kia produce its own cars?”

“Yes. That day will come sooner than you think. We have already applied for land for an automobile factory at the Ulsan Industrial Complex.”

The keynote speaker encouraged Kim Chul-ho, saying that he could start with the assembly of parts and gradually localize the parts one by one.

Kijo had a dream.

The idea was to develop a lightweight, strong, and fuel-efficient car to enter the American market before the oil crisis hit the world.

Nissan’s Bluebird, imported from Japan, became a huge hit in the American market for that very reason.

The oil crisis was both a crisis and an opportunity for the Korean economy.

There are 10 years left.

If the Korean auto industry had acquired and developed automobile production technology to make cars that were cheaper and more fuel-efficient than Japanese cars, the oil crisis would have been an opportunity for the Korean auto industry.